Lebanon (MNN) — Lebanon is a country of minorities, a plurality that translates to religious freedom unparalleled in the region. But Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says ethno-religious diversity is a double-edged sword. With it comes potential for polarization, a danger reaching further than Lebanon. In the United States too, tensions can suck up believers, leading to bitterness and even hatred of other groups. Houssney urges believers to filter world events through a Biblical lens and engage with people from a Christ-honoring standpoint, living first and foremost as Kingdom citizens.
“Whether you’re in Lebanon or the US, I think as Kingdom people we need to rise above that worldly empire thinking,” he says.
We should continually be asking the question, “What is the Gospel message and the Kingdom way of thinking and doing in this atmosphere?”
If we give in to narratives of ethnic groups or religious sectarianism, we become vulnerable to deceit by worldly narratives, and we risk losing the Kingdom.
“For example, the opportunity to reach Muslims could be jeopardized from either being afraid of Muslims or being angry with Muslims instead of showing the love of Christ to them,” Houssney says.
One way to avoid deception is to keep primary things first and secondary things second. Whether political, religious, or social, the issues need to be kept in their proper place.
“We need to look at the hierarchy of these things and act accordingly,” he says. “We need to keep the Biblical priorities as the top priorities, and then we try to work out the difficult questions of how we deal with the social issues – the places where it gets really messy.”
Houssney points out that in Jesus’s model of dialogue with and in front of the Pharisees, some conversations seemed aimed at the people being addressed, and some seemed aimed at the surrounding listeners.
Image courtesy of Sincerely Media via Unsplash.
“So I think for us as believers, we do need to have dialogue with believers in order to try to win them, but also to win the people we’re dialoguing in front of,” Houssney says.
No matter what type of dialogue believers engage in, it must always value the other speaker.
“The issues are important,” Houssney says. “This doesn’t mean we should just lose arguments and compromise on the truth in order to make people like us. It’s not a popularity contest.”
But Jesus was uncompromising in His love toward the people even through his calls for their repentance. Houssney exhorts believers to act likewise, always testing our hearts and conscience as we engage with people who are not like us.
“If any news headlines bring up hatred and anger and bad fruit within us, then we know we are going in a path that is not godly,” he says.
But if headlines motivate our love and strengthen our desire to fulfill the Great Commision, this is a good indicator we are on the right path.
Please pray that believers would raise the banner of the Gospel in dialogue with others.
Pray that the Lord would continue to send harvesters to the field, where so many people are waiting to hear His good news.
Pray also that believers would cling to the truth of the Gospel and not give sway to worldly power narratives. As Houssney points out:
“We as kingdom people should not be bought or sold.”
Featured image courtesy of Alexas Fotos via Pixabay
