Christians should fight more

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I was at the gym yesterday, listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll as I was doing my cardio. Mark was preaching about fighting for the glory of God in our relationships. I thought that to be an interesting topic, considering that so much of the Church is not participating in the fight but watching those Christians who do as if it were a Pay-Per-View event. Mark taught that Christians who feel wronged ought to confront the person who wrongs them and to forgive, while those who are wrongdoers ought to repent and confess their sin to God and to the person they have wronged. Furthermore, he taught that forgiveness is not overlooking or denying the existence of wrongdoing, but choosing not to hold resentment, bitterness, and malice towards one another. It is the Christian’s privilege to forgive, to release a person from personal judgment and shame, but also to maintain Godly accountability. The sermon caught my attention and it was enough to get me through my weight lifting as well.

Fighting for the glory of God in our relationships – how many of us are willing to do that? Working in the non-profit community mental heath sector, I see my co-workers fight for a crime free society by addressing social issues and needs (pretty lofty of a goal without introducing Jesus as the solution). I hear of politicians fighting over balanced (or very imbalanced) budgets. I see people in the gym fighting to lose weight, I see clients fighting to remain drug free and I see the unemployed fighting to find jobs. We all have our fights – to pay our bills, take care of our children, find personal time, etc. For a society that is so experienced in fighting to advance, the divorce rate skyrockets and the family unit is slowly coming undone in the United States. Personal accountability is absent and our relational intimacy as a Church is at an all time low. We are all fighting for ourselves, but are we fighting for the glory of God in our relationships?

"Fighting for the glory of God" is very Christianese. It sounds really holy, really righteous, but what does it even mean?* Maybe that is why we are not good at fighting for the glory of God. We have no clue what it means to do that. I am certainly no expert in Jesus style karate. However, as a society we know what it means to fight for something. We give something our fullest effort, placing our strongest and best foot forward. We work hard, deny ourselves and learn all we can on how to be the most proficient and efficient at the task at hand.

Perhaps fighting for the God’s glory occurs when we place the same intensity and effort into Biblical commands, specifically regarding how we interact with one another. There are commands to love another (John 13:34), to do nothing with oneself in mind but to count other’s needs as more pertinent than our own (Phil. 2:3), and to respect and honor each other the same exact way we would like to be respected and honored (Matthew 7:12). This is the way that Jesus treats us. We love Him and honor Him and give Him thanks because He consistently loves us, working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28), caring about the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). And we strive to be like Jesus, to be Christlike in our behavior and interactions.

I am learning how to fight for those I love. I do not pretend to have this stuff down or to be the best at doing these things. I struggle with balancing my own personal needs and boundaries with loving others selflessly. Still, I am encouraged by the vision of relational intimacy between believers that can foster an environment of vulnerability and passion. I imagine a Church where there is no gossip or backbiting, no lying or manipulating, filled with absolute transparency and genuine unity. I imagine marriages consumed with glory for God, overwhelmed with undying love in the most selfless of commitments to lifetime intimacy. I imagine a Church, consumed with purpose as it sharpens each member’s swords as iron sharpens iron. We can live out this dream. True story.

*Mark Driscoll’s sermon "How to Fight for the Glory of God" is rather relevant and may be worth checking out.