Are You Odd?
Why do we balk, in the face of adequate revelation, when the Lord asks us to do something which society or even many believers would think was quite peculiar? His ways are peculiar to unbelievers and to immature believers who largely think like unbelievers. We need not try to be odd. Yet, if we are following Christ, we will be viewed by many as being peculiar. To those who don’t think as God does, the message we proclaim is weird, our morals will often seem bizarrely restrictive, and our general way of living will appear to be eccentric.
Think of a few examples where the Lord required His faithful people to do something quite odd. Phillip was asked to leave a thriving, cutting-edge ministry to go to a seldom-used road (Acts 8:26, PEB). Jesus put mud on a blind man’s eyes and asked him to walk to the other side of the city to wash it off (Jn 9:6). He surely would have been the object of much ridicule in obeying the Lord on this. In addition, the Lord seemed to require a man to dishonor his father by ignoring his greatest responsibility to his dying father (Mt 8:22). Jesus commanded a rich man to give far more than God’s people would have thought necessary (Lk 14:33). As an older man, God required Isaiah, a prophet, to experience the shame of walking naked, or nearly naked, in public for three years (Isa 20:1-3). Jesus ‘scandalously’ allowed women who were not married to His male disciples to travel in His group (Mt 27:55) so He could engage in the further ‘scandal’ of adult coeducation (Lk 8:1-3, IVPBBC note).
Should we make sure the Lord really has asked us to do something which seems bizarre? Of course. Yet, we dare not dismiss a possible directive simply because it is peculiar. Do we care more about the approval of people or the approval of God? See Jn 12:42-43.
Christians should accept those whom God has accepted.