The apostle John tells us in his first letter that if we belong to Jesus Christ, then we share in his anointing (1 John 2:27). That is to say, the Holy Spirit who unites us to Jesus, also calls and equips us to serve Christ in this world. Remember the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost and the reference to the prophecy of Joel? In the last days...your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams
(Acts 2:17). The new covenant is a time where all God’s people will also serve him as prophets.
And in this prophetic capacity, our responsibility is not to look for new revelation, like a still small voice speaking inside. No, the Son has spoken and our task is to confess his name. We must testify before friend, family, and neighbour that Jesus is the Christ and that we seek to follow him. That is the prophetic task which is shared by each and every Christian believer. If we are to be faithful in that task, we need to speak and listen.
When it comes to speaking—there are many biblical truths which we do not want to hear, and which the world around us certainly does not want to hear. In the past it was primarily truth about God’s judgment on sin, the eternality of hell and the exclusivity of Christ. Today the focus has shifted to Christian ethics—the biblical teaching on marriage, gender, human life, and sexuality in particular are very unpopular in the western world and close to being labelled as hate speech.
That makes life difficult. We all want to be winsome; we all want the good news of Jesus to be embraced by those we love, so we are tempted to pay references to cost and submission. But if we remove the message of God’s wrath against sin, or if we find ways of excusing what goes against God’s Word, then we fail to be honest and we do not honour our Lord in our speaking.
Like Samuel, our prophetic task will mean speaking truth that people do not want to hear. Most certainly we must do so in love and find the right balance between grace and truth is always tricky. But we must remember first and foremost, in our call to confess that Jesus is the Christ, we are not aiming to please men but God. He is our King; he is our Master. So let us pray for courage to speak the truth at work and in other social settings. And let us also pray for wisdom to do so in love.
1 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.