Kaitlin asked a great question at college lunch on Sunday. In essence, she asked how we are to interact with people on campus (or even in the "real world") who profess to be Christian, but at the same time lack outward signs of fruit. I found Mark Dever's advice helpful: take them at their word and treat them as Christians. I found that this indirectly tied to Mark's first reasons for why it's important to have a good understanding of conversion...for our church. That is, among church members we are to have high expectations of each other because we assume all are converted and thus are repenting and trusting Christ.
That means, for those who are nominal Christians and still profess to be Christian, we should talk to them about the Bible, ask what they've read in their quiet times, about their prayer life, about their evangelism, about their discipleship. If they're actually Christian, this will hopefully be encouraging and spur them on to godly living. If they're not, hopefully they will, by God's grace, be genuinely converted; or they will recognize that they are not actually Christian.
I thought Mark's nugget of wisdom was worth sharing.
General Updates:
- Grabbing coffee and lunch with Kevin. Last chunk of quality time I'll be able to spend with this dear brother for a few months.
- Time to start studying, beginning with polishing up a final draft for an essay-exam and then catching up on readings for my Eastern Religion class. Should be a wonderful time of brain-enlargening...both components (a wonderful time and brain-enlargening) are questionable.
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