Christianity At It’s Best Is Like Madness

2 Corinthians 5:13
If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

Good News Translation
Are we really insane? It is for God’s sake. Or are we sane? Then it is for your sake.

Amplified Bible
If we are out of our mind [just unstable fanatics as some critics say], it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit.

New Living Translation
If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.

Would you like to be considered a mad person? Is it commendable when it is said of you that you are mad? Is madness something to be proud of? Yet, Christianity at its best is like madness.

Mad in the sense that you are not acting as normal people are expected to act. It is not the madness of expressing anger but the madness of acting abnormally. Christians talking and acting at their best is not normal at all. In fact, Christians are encouraged to act differently from what others expect or do.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Do not conform to what is considered normal. Refuse to be normal at the cost of your faithfulness to God. Act abnormally by world standards to the extent that the abnormality is faithfulness to God’s will. Christianity at its best is like madness!

Apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church not to worry when others say they are mad. The word he uses has been translated differently by various versions as cited above. Madness is being out of your mind. Madness is insanity. Madness is being crazy.

Christians were so faithful to God until their talk and actions were considered madness. The more they practiced their faith and spoke about it, the more they looked different from others. They went further from what was considered normal. That is why it is true to state that Christianity at its best is like madness.

Isn’t it madness to refuse to steal money at your workplace yet you need it and may not be caught? Isn’t it madness to forgive your enemies and show them, love? Isn’t it madness to refuse to visit a witch doctor and only resort to prayer yet that witch doctor is claimed to have helped many others?

Isn’t it madness to abandon the faith of your parents, relatives, and friends and follow a newfound faith that is Bible-based? Isn’t it madness to do your best and let God’s will be done, yet you could bribe some people? Isn’t it madness to keep the sabbath by not working or studying when everyone thinks you should?

Isn’t it madness to refuse to drink alcohol and abuse drugs because God you have never seen recommends so? Isn’t it madness to refuse to engage in premarital or extramarital just because God says so? Isn’t it madness to reject some clothes because they are not befitting a believer?

Isn’t it madness to refuse to resort to violence when provoked because you have let God take revenge? Isn’t it madness to close your eyes and speak to the invisible and believe your message has been received? Isn’t it madness to read a book written two thousand years ago and believe that an unseen God is speaking to you on current issues through it?

Christianity at its best is like madness. May we be confident enough to be thought to be mad but faithful to our God. In Jesus’s name, Amen!

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