“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you…” Romans 12:2a (TPT)
So many in the church are operating under the influence of the cancel culture. Even pastors, without realizing it, can succumb to it. The wicked strategy of the devil to silence, cut off, break away from… those who have a different opinion than their own… permeates throughout our land. Personally, I know of many who simply have “cancelled” me and our ministry. I am saddened by it, mainly because they are choosing to act like the world and not Jesus. My emails, texts and phone calls, inviting them, connecting them, seem lost in a deep dark hole somewhere in cyberspace.
Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to not do the same. We are called to think differently from the world, and no longer be conformed to it (Romans 12:2). Jesus desires us to keep loving those who are different from us, who are not like us, or don’t like us, who have cancelled us! We are told to bear with each other in love (Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:2). Likewise, we are told to accept one another as Jesus accepted us (Romans 15:7). Jesus loved the sinners without Himself becoming one! We are more than our differences. We ARE the body of Christ and we actually agree about more than we disagree on! It is time to act like it.
Today take time to pray for those who have cut you off and cancelled you. This may be friends, family, even neighbors or people in your church. Ask God to bless them and to help you to love them. Ask God to cancel this wicked cancel culture strategy, starting in you, and your church!
