Question: Have you ever heard or uttered the phrase, “Stand in the gap”? Most of us have, I should think. The meaning is straightforward, but I looked at some defintions online, too, just to see. Here was the first one: “To assume a position of active, resolute defense (for or against something).” I appreciated that, especially the part about standing in the gap “for or against something.” In other words, there should be reasons–good solid defensible reasons–for standing in the gap.

As a soldier of more than two decades now, and of many many days spent in military settings across the globe, I have seen and been part of no small amount of standing in the gap for America. But my concern here is not about military operations, per se. My concern is for the Christian church that is so often anemic, vanilla, and irrelevant. Why? Because the unspoken assumption in so many professing Christian communities is, “Be nice. Don’t raise your voice. Don’t be political. Just love people. And above all, be nice.”

Of course there is no command in the Bible to be unnecessarily fractious. However, do you think Jesus was crucified for not being nice? Did the Bible record how the Pharisees opined, “You have declared yourself to be a meanie; therefore, let’s call the Romans and have you crucified on Friday.” Um, no.

Was Paul stoned, whipped, tortured, imprisoned, run out of town, and eventually martyred under Nero because he was not nice? Again, no. Read his letters for yourself.

Was Peter crucified for not being nice? How about Thomas? How about James? Again, no.

Connection: I am indebted to some new friends who have united with our Sunday school class. Recently they introduced me to Larry Alex Taunton. He is a Christian intellectual, writer, and thinker. And here (it is linked below for you) is what he does in this (and other) podcasts/videos he puts out: He calls on true Christians to actually connect what they say they believe to how they actually behave. What a concept, right? Who knew that orthodoxy is to shape orthopraxy? Belief shapes behavior. In other words, he reminds us to stand in the gap.

Takeaway: This Sunday as we gather, I am teacing on Psalm 22, one of the most quoted and crucial and Christocentric psalms in all of the Old Testament. But when David penned that, he penned it from a position of a man standing in the gap.

He was a real man, speaking to real people, in a real zip code, on a real day, about real suffering and combat and hope and redemption.

It wasn’t fortune cookie bromides. It wasn’t, “Just be nice.”

It was (and is) about standing in the gap, how he did it as a king in his day, and about the ultimate King, who endured the wrath for his people, so that they would not lose hope, so that they would stand in the gap in their day, too.

Stand in the gap, dear Christian. Don’t retreat into pietism and cowardice by telling yourself (or by believing others when they tell you) that Christianity is “Just be nice.” That’s sentimentalism and moralism and not the message of the prophesied, sent, crucified, risen Savior. If you are a believer, you are to stand in the gap and so be found faithful. Connect the gospel to your daily life. Live it out. Yes, this brings conflict. But that is inseparable from the Christian life. You were told that you would “meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:3, ESV).

And why must it be that way? Listen to Peter: “so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7, ESV).

Stand in the gap, dear ones. Stand in the gap.

A Plea to Pastors: Connect the Word to the events of the world; show the people how the Word of God explains the world. That is the way to equip the saints. Stop prostrating yourself before the “Idol of Nice” and connect the true church to the true God through his true Word. That is equipping the saints for battle. If you don’t do that, you’re just nice and altogether irrelevant.