Rebels With A Cause

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “rebel”? Most probably would think of someone that goes against the grain. There is a norm and the rebel does the opposite. Maybe you are thinking of certain types of people that did exactly what the world told them not to. Decades ago you were a rebel if you didn’t listen to your parents, had sex outside of marriage, did drugs,  broke the law,did not keep a steady job etc. Webster's Dictionary says that rebel means “to oppose or disobey one in authority or control” which lays it out perfectly.

For the longest time rebels were sinners. They were people that didn’t do the right thing and went against their parents and the law. Movies glamorized them ,from hard core criminals to unruly teens. They would do everything from bucking the trend by what they wore to breaking the law. No  christians would associate with rebels. These people did what they felt and sometimes broke the law to do it.

But now in a weird turn of events, I almost believe that Christians are now rebels! Not so much that we should have a rebellious attitude. But when you stop to think about it, how we want to live is rebellious to the “norms” of society. Getting married to the opposite sex, having kids, raising a family, going to church, a woman wanting to be a homemaker, not killing babies, keeping a steady job, not partying, being respectful, not being loose, believing in two genders and standing up for objectionable truth is now considered weird. Our beliefs and practices are all against societal norms. What society considers ordinary is what we would call sinful. Our holy living is viewed as rebellious as it goes against the rest of our community!

We shouldn’t be surprised by this, the church is the original rebel! Think about the apostles and how many times they were in trouble for what they believed and did! Peter’s famous quote in Acts, “We must obey God rather than man.” (Acts 5:29) is the ultimate rebellious line. Now to be clear, I am not at all talking about being rebellious to God, but to the world. We are all rebels to the world. We rebel against what they believe and how they live. But unlike James Dean, we are rebels with a cause. We are rebellious against the world to follow God, not our hearts. We are not rebellious to buck the tradition and be different to be different. We live holy which means being separate from the world. Jesus even warned us that we would be different from the world.  “ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.” (John 15:18-21) Even Paul taught us to not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2).

What is my point? I sometimes think we need to embrace our rebel role in society more than what we do. I am not saying that we should buy leather jackets, color our hair purple and be mean to everyone. But we can tend to want to be loved and accepted by the world. We must realize that we are not of them and they are not of us. We should evangelize, but never apologize. We can too easily be uncomfortable with how the world is uncomfortable with us! We can selfishly desire to be liked by those around us. We can easily hope to be accepted by our peers. There was a whole church movement a decade ago based on this. The seeker sensitive church was based on trying to make church cool without blatantly sinning. And then maybe the world will like us and want to come in our doors. But this is not what the bible teaches us! God is clear that we will be different and be hated because we are different. Or to put it another way: we will be rebelliously holy. Embrace being a rebel. We are called to turn away from the world and turn to Christ .In fact, you couldn't be a christian unless you do just that. (2 Chronicles 7:14)