I’m currently reading a book called The Bravehearted Gospel, by Eric Ludy. The tagline reads: The truth is worth fighting for. I wholeheartedly agree. So far I have found it to be thought-provoking, convicting, and insightful. The forward starts off:

Brown is the new black; emergent is the new reformation-of at least so some would claim. Like it or not, something new is afoot. After decades of defending the status quo, a cry is now being raised from every quarter, from both young and old alike, for a living, breathing, authentic rendition of the Christian faith that will stoke the fires of the soul, bring back the meaning of life, and revive an ailing church to its very foundations.

That is what the book is about: returning to what being a follower of Christ really means. Confronting the inconsistencies and compromises that we all know exist, but eventually ignore as if God will look over them. Now, in the very next paragraph, a line says “This book could very well be labeled ‘emergent’”. Some of you may flinch at the mention of that word, or perhaps narrow your eyes in suspicion. I admit, I did. But as I read further, my doubts were dispelled as the author made very clear that this “emerging from the ghetto of religion” is not about finding something ‘new’ or ‘revolutionary’, or changing the gospel to ‘fit the culture’. Rather, he writes, when we do emerge from our twisted view of God and what it means to follow him, we will not find something new, but something old. It is returning to the roots of the faith, not trying to ‘update’ it. He writes further and looks at the person of Jesus Christ, inviting the reader to compare his current view of Christianity to how Jesus lived, and although he never explicitly stated it, I got the feeling that he was making a strong contrast to the modern day American church and implying that it, in fact, does not follow Christ’s example.

He did this by examining the attributes of Christ, and started with the undeniable fact that Christ not only loved, but was love in and of itself. He came to this world and led a life of serving and healing others. That is the Jesus that our culture has embraced; we love that side of Jesus. “We have wholeheartedly embraced the sentimental, watercolor Jesus that seems to spend most of His time holding lambs and patting children on the head with some faraway, glazed-over, dreamy look in His eye. And we seem to shy away from, or altogether ignore, that man who spoke the truth of God so boldly that conspiracies were entreated to bring about His painful and public execution”, writes the author, which brings him right into his next point: Jesus not only embodied love, but truth and light. We like love. Love deals in relationships, while truth deals in cold hard facts. But Jesus never compromised one for the other.

However, we have. We use clichés like “speak the truth in love”, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with that concept, so many use it as an excuse to water down the gospel and give people false expectations of what being a follower of Christ truly means. We emphasize the love half of the gospel while completely cutting out the part about sin and repentance. This gospel is not helping people. It is sending them to Hell. They stand clueless before the judgment throne of God bewildered because they read a prayer off a cue card and thought they were ok, and they never knew any better, because they look at the church and that’s what they see.

Applying and integrating the truth of God into my own life is a struggle. Hypocrisy is so easy to fall into. Speaking the truth in love is tempting because it allows us to preach the ‘gospel’ and still have people like us. But here’s the kicker that the author brings up: All Jesus ever did was love and serve people, and yet they killed him. Why? Because he was more than love; he was and is the truth and the light, and the world has embraced lies and darkness. This has caused me to examine my own life. Am I too loved by the world? Do I look too much like the world? Have I been rejected enough lately? Have I been hated on or ridiculed enough lately? It’s not that the Christian is out looking for these things, but the Bible makes it clear, such things are inherently part of following Christ. This leads me to conclude that the absence of such things in my life is a problem.

I look forward to digging deeper into this book. After only one chapter I have so many things to think about as far as real-life application goes. I admit that there have been times where indeed I have left the truth out of my life instead of letting it permeate it. I must let the truth define my life, as opposed to letting myself define what is true. As of late, my pastor has been using the phrase as of late “What did Jesus do?” because “What would Jesus do” is completely open to our own interpretation. I need to start looking at the model that Jesus was for the truth, because only the truth will set me free.