Ethics of the Dangerous Kind

My friend, and fellow ARC pastor, Graeme Sellers, exhorts us in his preaching, teaching, and writing to live as the Dangerous Kind - as Christ followers who are dangerous for the kingdom of God and a real threat to the dominion of the enemy. This is constantly before me as I read Scripture, and other books, now. So this week, as I am reading I come across the following which has to do with the ethics of men and women who would refuse to live complacent Christian lives, but choose rather to live dangerously for the Kingdom of God.

"The deeper difference between Jesus' ethic and that of the Pharisees was this: the Pharisees had an ethic of avoidance, and Jesus had an ethic of involvement. The Pharisees question was not 'How can I glorify God?' It was 'How can I avoid bringing disgrace to God?' This degenerated into a concern not with God, but with self - with image, reputation, procedure. They didn't ask, 'How can I make others clean?' They asked, 'How can I keep myself from getting dirty?" They did not seek to rescue sinners, only to avoid sinning.'

Jesus, in sharp contrast, got involved. He sought always and in all ways to help, to heal, to save, to restore. Rather than running from evil, He ran toward the good. And evil, in fear, fled. Look at Legion, the man under assault by a demon mob. Everyone else fears Legion, tries to banish him to the tombs. But when Jesus shows up, it's Legion who is afraid...

Jesus got close enough to unholy people for the spark of holiness in Him to jump. He took the tax collectors, the rough fishermen, the harlots, the demon possessed, and gave back to them dignity and life. He gave back to Legion his real name. The Pharisees avoided these people lest they were infected with their sin and overwhelmed by their evil.

The tragedy is that we have often preferred the ethic of the Pharisee to the ethic of Christ...The question Christ would have us ask is not, 'How will this or that affect my witness?' His question is 'What can I do to have effective witness?' The first question is rooted in the ethic of avoidance. But the second question is rooted in an ethic of involvement. With that question we're asking, 'How can I bring the salt and light of God's truth to bear on this life, this situation, this place? How can I cast out evil and clean up the place where it dwelt?'

'As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' Jesus sends us as the Father sent Him. It means that we're to go in the same authority, with the same power, with the same heart, after God. It means we walk by the Spirit and become like Jesus from the inside out. The risk of avoidance is that in the end the one we avoid is Christ Himself."

By God's grace, let us live life like Jesus did, Beloved. Let us live life as ones who are dangerous for the Kingdom of God and a real threat to the dominion of the enemy; as ones who live out of an ethic of involvement, not avoidance.