We are People of the In Between

Let’s talk about the third way, because Christians are people of the third way. Often you would not know it, because we pick sides.

Raise your hand if you remember how God asked the Israelites to wipe out the Amalekites, but they did not do it. Guess what? The Israelites suffered as a result, many of their own people died as a result, and God was not happy with His people’s disobedience.

Listen carefully. There has been and there always will be (until the day of Christ) an evil that can only be destroyed. There is no amount of love, of kindness, of goodness that will draw this type of evil back into the fold of God’s loving kindness. There is a kind of evil that must be only destroyed.

The thing that no one understood until Jesus came is that God’s loving kindness stretches over into this evil. He is so good and so loving and so willing that He wants all men to be drawn to Him, even the ones who will choose the butthead of all – Satan, over the goodness of God.

When Jesus was born, lived, died a crucifying death, stretched wide open, body broken and spilled, and then was resurrected again to new life, He did so that all may have the opportunity to know Him. In the three days He was dead here, He lived in between. He overcame the devil. He overcame evil, and it was finished – that all may have the opportunity to know Him.

But don’t be fooled – the devil is never going to submit to God. He’s still trying to be God, and One day, ALL of his shenanigans are going to be over. Men are not going to be bloodthirsty. They will no longer rape and kill the women and children. Orphans will be no more. The final day of overcoming will be here, and evil will END and meet its death.

Until then, the day of Jesus when the end of evils comes, we are people of the in between. Jesus has been our example of how to live this in between life. We have a power that only comes from Jesus’s resurrection life, and we must live this life of truth, fearlessness, and love. We are overcomers because Jesus overcame. Evil cannot defeat us.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart (courage)! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

We often let him defeat us in our little battles. This is not a time to stand in defeat or fear or worry or anxiety.

We are people of the in between. We must go out and love our enemies, but we must have wisdom.

Let me just say that I am not about to pretend I understand everything about the evils of ISIS. I do not. But I understand that they are good at their mission of creating terror in the hearts of people all over the world, especially Americans. They are terrorists.

Satan is atrocious, and most of us have not lived to see the evil that he can disperse. We’ve only read about it in history books.

Many of us are not fighters. We are common, every-day, ordinary people. We wonder if we are going to live through the atrocities our ancestors faced. More than that, we wonder how our children will survive. We cannot let fear rule.

Now is not the time to be overwhelmed with fear. We are men and women of valor. We are people who believe in the power that has overcome all evil. We are Christians.

Now is the time when we can look at the past and see how we’ve survived. From the time Stephen was murdered for his faith to now. Guess what? People get persecuted for loving the true God. We are told to expect it, and all throughout history, men and women die for Jesus, and then there is a remnant. God will not stop being good to us now. The church was persecuted, then a remnant remained. Mounds of Jews died in the Holocaust, and then some lived to tell about it. This evil never wins, though it may win battles.

We can love refugees, and we can be shrewd in our dealings with the enemy. As people of the third way, we sit in the tension of loving our enemies and wanting to see justice served.

Love leads to death, so if we want to be people who love our enemies, we must be people willing to die for love and for justice.

Because we are people of the in between, we must be willing to die, to go to the death for Christ, in order to continue to draw all men to Him. We must also be willing to stand firm to Christ, so that men may marvel at the goodness of the God we serve. We will pray for our enemies, but we will be wise in our dealings with them.

“As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

“So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.^[b] And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
    a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’^[c]

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Matthew 10:12-42

As Christians, we must expect adversity. We must expect that there will be wars and rumors of wars and that in the days leading up to judgment, unspeakable evils may come to pass. Who knows? Maybe we are in those days. Or maybe they are still far off. Until Jesus returns, we must be people who stand in the gap, who fight for truth and justice, who do not want to see innocent men killed, who fight for good to win, who continue to usher in the coming Kingdom of Jesus, the King who will right all the wrongs. We must act in love, but we must be wise in how we love our enemies. There is an evil that must be destroyed, and one day, in the blink of our eyes, it will be done.