Bolling: What Kind of Letter Would They Write?

Those of you who really know me know that my faith has always been a very important part of my life … in fact, the most important part of my life.

I try to let my faith guide me in how life should be lived and set the tone for my relationships with other people. I’m certainly not perfect, but I try to do my best to live up the biblical expectations that God has established for his people.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the current state of the church and the declining influence of religion in our society. This concerns me greatly, because I truly believe that the church was intended to be a force for good in our society. Not just good in the sense of helping people in their time of need; but also good in the sense of establishing moral guidelines about how life should be lived. Defining right and wrong behavior for example.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary in the early church, wrote a series of letters to the churches he had helped establish during his three missionary journeys. Sometimes Paul praised these churches for being the kind of a beacon God intended them to be. But other times he chastised them for failing to “walk worthy of the vocation to which they had been called.”

In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John did much the same thing. He wrote a series of letters to the prominent churches in his day. Again, he sometimes praised them for their faithfulness and good work; while other times he criticized them for failing to live up to the expectations of their faith.

This all begs my question of the day. If the Apostles Paul and John were alive today, what letter would they write to the church in America?

Personally, I think the modern church does many things well. We would probably be praised for the work we do in missions, both at home and abroad for example. For our willingness to reach out to people who are suffering and try to help make their lives a little bit better. That is certainly an important mission of the church.

But I suspect they would also have some sharp words of warning for the modern church. I suspect they would be critical of our failure to live up to biblical truth, and our increasing willingness to allow the values of secular culture to influence the actions and beliefs of the church. After all, they both gave us many warnings about being in the world, but not being of the world.

I’ve learned in my 65 years on this planet that it is hard for me to influence the actions of the global church, which frankly is led by people who do not always share my more conservative approach to biblical truth; but I can be true to my own actions. I want to be the kind of a person who tries to help improve the lives of other people when I can, but I also want to be the kind of person who remains faithful to a lifestyle that is consistent with God’s word.

I think we can do both. What do you think? If the Apostles Paul and John were alive today, what kind of letter do you think they would write to the church in America?