John the Baptist was willing to follow the truth to His death. You will likely never face death for the truth, but are you willing to face derision? Jared Wilson exhorts us to “Be Bold Enough to Follow the Truth as Far as It Takes You”:
Given what is taking place in the world today, do we have any indications that to follow Christ will become more and more comfortable? The Bible Belt, long the cultural bastion of “biblical values,” has long been heading toward the spiritual ruins of post-Christendom. Cultural Christianity is wasting away. And the outside world is becoming more and more hostile to the things of faith. Even some professing Christians are becoming hostile to those who will not move according to the shifting winds of the culture. And if God is doing anything in ordaining these cultural shifts to come to pass, it may be this: We are finding out who the real Christians are. (Even today, some are announcing in anger and embarrassment that they will never again call themselves evangelical, to which we must respond with all sincerity and soberness, “Thank you.”)
Maybe he is sifting out his churches that his Church might rise up....
[John the Baptist] was willing to follow the truth no matter where it took him, even to his death. Faithful Christians in the West do not face death but hatred, perhaps simply the death of esteem, respect. Okay, then. Gird your emotional loins, then.
What we need are bold Christians—Christians bold enough to disappoint anybody necessary for the contending of the faith. What we need are Christians so in worshipful awe of Jesus Christ, that they can spot counterfeit gospels (and counterfeit arguments) in seconds and call them out. What the world needs are Christians who love their reputations not, even unto derision. What we need are Christians so committed to Christ, that they will go to their crosses to affirm all that he said, not just the popular parts.
Read the rest of his post.