I was chatting to a woman the other day who has been faithfully serving the Lord for many years. She is passionate about getting out into the community in order to touch as many souls as she can with the love of God, and has been doing so ever since she committed her life to Jesus Christ as a teenager. She has that Jesus passion in spades. It drives her.
Her love for Jesus propels her into her community with acts of kindness and astonishing sacrifice. She has touched many, many lives and has sowed many seeds of the kingdom for nearly 60 years. This saint only understands the gospel as a ‘centrifugal force’ – not a ‘centripetal force’. Let me explain the difference for those who never got to study physics at school.
Centrifugal: in very basic terms, describes a force that moves, or is constantly moving, or tending to move, away from a central starting point with no diminishing energy. The force is outward like an ever-expanding circle.
Centripetal: again, in very basic terms, describes a force that moves, or is moving, or tending to move, towards a central point. The circle is shrinking, in other words.
This is an important metaphor for the church to consider as it grapples with a COVID-impacted landscape post-lockdowns. As I have viewed the Christian landscape around the nation and have spoken with many a pastor, the post-lockdown church seems to have developed a centripetal tendency. It’s focus is shrinking slowly inward. It’s message is being focused more and more inwards – an increasingly centripetal dynamic is occurring. This is not biblical, of course. The church is in dangerous territory right now! Jesus more than hinted that the Gospel mandate was to be always outward-focused from the centre of His ministry – and increasingly so, and gaining momentum, not losing it. This is what He said to the apostles just before He ascended into heaven after the resurrection …
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
[Jesus] “But you (pl.) will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be(come) my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Note the centrifugal focus here. One of the factors that gave tremendous centrifugal force to the Gospel was the power with which the early church was endowed. They had received power – Holy Spirit power – to take the Gospel message to the ends of the earth. They moved in that awesome power.
The Gospel is centrifugal in focus, and centrifugal in force.
But there was another critical factor. It was not only Holy Spirit power that was given to the first Christians, but they also had something else. Something this woman I met recently had in spades; and that was a burning passion for Jesus and His cause. In the end, that’s the indispensable fuel for mission and Gospel witness, isn’t it? There is plenty of Holy Spirit power on standby for ANY church, just the same as the Church in the Book of Acts had - but that endowment, or empowerment, alone doesn’t necessarily cause the church to become a community of centrifugal Christians. This woman’s passion for Jesus and His cause could not be contained – it had centrifugal dynamism. It kept moving outwards and increasing by nature. God’s love could not be contained in heaven, His divine love is centrifugal by nature – it just has to move ever outwards. “For God so loved the world, He sent …” And this love was in this woman …
The core dynamic of the Gospel message is this kind of love that knows no bounds, no limits and no conditions. That love, as Jesus often said, is supposed to be the chief characteristic of the people of God that motivates everything we do.
John 13:34-35 (NIV)
[Jesus] "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another."
Again, note the centrifugal nature of this love – it continues to fan outwards to ignite the world. So, why are Christians everywhere becoming more and more spiritually centripetal? Why are we so inward-looking, so self-focused and, in many places, the church has circled the wagons? Why? Because love for Jesus has grown cold and His kingdom cause is becoming secondary. We are called to be a centrifugal people; we need to recover that and remember who we are as God’s people here.
If Christians’ love for Jesus is growing cold, it is ONLY because their love for the world is increasing. This is a far cry from who and what we should be …
2 Corinthians 5:14 (NIV)
“For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.”
So what kind of a Christian do you want to be in this COVID-impacted world? A centripetal one who loves the world more than Jesus, and whose witness is shrinking and diminishing as you blame COVID for everything? Or a centrifugal witness compelled by a passionate love for our blessed Redeemer, and thus empowered and propelled by Holy Spirit power? You have chosen already. Perhaps someone reading this needs to change their choice … while they still can …
Think on these things.
Ps Milton