My thoughts on Boldness in Christianity

There is no quality harder to attain than boldness. Oftentimes being bold is equated to being obnoxious, and is looked down on. Other times it is viewed as being a negative trait only associated with zealots. Even within the church, boldness can be frowned on, with the "this is how we always do", or maybe "there is no way we can be wrong because God said so" attitudes can drown out or shut down any reservations that could be had about the direction of the body. I think that there are two obvious applications, or situations, in which boldness is necessary.

First, boldness is necessary to spread the gospel of Jesus. In this area boldness is seen as sacrifice. Sacrificing your reputation, your own selfish desire to keep quiet, or perhaps sacrificing your time to talk with someone. However, I think boldness comes in the act of obedience. Through obedience we become bolder and bolder as we move more towards what we are supposed to be talking about, rather than frivolous things. Pastor Danny from BSCC made a comment which I feel nails this. He stated that "to the infinite, all finite things are equal"(he applied this statement to how our problems are easier to face with an infinite God). I believe that there is another place to which this statement can be applied . To the infinite, all finite is equally meaningless. It doesn't matter if its your job or the Super Bowl. All of it is equally meaningless. However, we find it much easier to discuss these meaningless things, rather than discussing eternal things. Why? Because we would rather sacrifice our time and selves to things we can see. The visible is comforting. However, everything visible is merely a distraction to infinite things.

Once we focus on eternal things, boldness to speak of them will come naturally. Obedience to the will of God creates boldness. The will of God is for man to become close to him; by telling others how to do this in turn places us further into God's will, and knowing this will further increase boldness to speak more on eternal things.

I feel that the second application of boldness is within the body of Christ. Oftentimes when we see things amiss at a church, or with another believer, we will not speak out of fear. We are to keep ourselves on the path, and being bold is the ONLY way to do this. Certainly it is easier to talk to other, like minded people about the situation rather than confront it. It is easier to judge to others on something rather than to the problem. The attitude towards boldness doesn't help. Being obnoxious isn't the same as boldness. Being judgmental isn't the same as boldness. Boldness is born from an obedience to God and out of his heart of love. Being bold will inspire change, not create riffs. There needs to be an attitude shift in the churches; away from shutting down suggestions and critique, or from pushing those out who do these things. Through this we can push further towards the collective goal of reaching out to God.