The murder/assassination of Charlie Kirk has caused an epic response around the world! Many didn’t know who he was before this, but everybody does now. He had a profound global influence on young people, and that influence appears to be growing by 10 to 100 fold after his death. Charlie was an avid Christian and seemed to emphasize his faith more than ever in the last few years of his brief 31 year life. At this point, what you or I think of Charlie doesn’t really matter so much as what we as Christian believers can learn about how Charlie shared his faith and was used by God so powerfully in that area.

It turns out that I began watching video clips of Charlie online about 2 years ago, and I was impressed with his confidence in knowing who he was, and also with his desire to share what he considered truth in relation to his faith as well as his political and world views. Of course his political views led to a lot of discussion and many differed with them. But I would like to focus on 3 major areas of Charlie’s approach that every Christian believer should consider as we interact with our friends and our culture as Christian witnesses today.

 1) OUR IDENTITY IS IN JESUS, NOT IN POLITICS AND THE WORLD’S SYSTEMS.

Many saw Charlie as an unapologetic Conservative/Republican, which he certainly was. BUT, his main identity was as a Christian, a born again member of Jesus’ Kingdom. And that should be our primary identity as well! Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians:

¹⁶  From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. ¹⁷  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. – 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 (ESV)

When we become Christians, we are new creations, new people! We now belong to Jesus and our allegiance is to his Kingdom, first and foremost. This is our new identity! We no longer see our primary identity as Americans, Democrats, Republicans, conservative or liberal. We are now KINGDOM men and women, ambassadors for Jesus and his Kingdom.  Our truth is found in Jesus, and the Bible, God’s written word which points to Jesus. We recognize the difference between God’s pure truth and the best of human wisdom and knowledge, which is colored by sin and brokenness. We recognize that human politics at it’s best is still only human solutions to a broken world that we don’t have the ability to fully redeem and restore. Christianity, on the other hand, offers God’s perfect, holy solutions of hope and healing to a broken world when we turn to God and obey his leading!

2) WHILE WE APPRECIATE FREE SPEECH, WE RECOGNIZE IT IS FAR LESS HELPFUL AND UPLIFTING THAN GOD’S STANDARD OF CHRIST-LIKE SPEECH THAT HE CALLS US TO EMULATE!

One of the greatest privileges of being Americans is the right to free speech, and Charlie Kirk advocated for that, especially on college campuses where he felt students were only getting one view on many subjects. He would set up a tent and invite those who disagreed with him to speak first and “have a conversation”. He pushed the idea that the more we can talk with those who disagree with us, the better we will understand each other and that will lead to less violence and misunderstanding. Unfortunately, many don’t like that idea, and that appears to have led to his death.

As wonderful as the idea of free speech is, God calls his followers to a higher standard of speech!

Free speech allows us to freely say just about anything, no matter how uplifting or degrading and filthy that speech may be. But as Kingdom people, new creations made to “image” or reflect the character of Jesus, we are called to have the mindset and the vocabulary of Jesus, not the decadent, fallen world we presently live in. Here are some scriptures showing how we as ambassadors for Jesus should, and must, speak if our goal is truly to advance his Kingdom:

Psalm 141:3 (ESV)
³  Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!

Proverbs 15:1-2 (ESV)
¹  A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. ²  The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

James 1:19-20 (ESV)
¹⁹  Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰  for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 3:9 (ESV)
⁹  Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

Ephesians 4:29-32 (ESV)
²⁹  Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³²  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Colossians 4:5-6 (ESV)
⁵  Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. ⁶  Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Obviously, God is calling us to be different than the fallen world in how we speak. And if we don’t, God will hold us accountable for our words!…

James 3:7-10 (ESV)
⁷  For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, ⁸  but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹  With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Matthew 12:36-37 (ESV)
³⁶  I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, ³⁷  for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

3) How, then, should we live in this in this violent, hate-filled world?

First, read and study the Bible, pray, and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you through all this. The voices of our culture are a cacophony of on the one hand, the best of what humanity comes up with, but mostly a mixture of crazy, hateful, biased information designed to make us angry and confused and leading us to fall prey to those who want to control and use us! Remember, God wants ALL people to turn to him, repent, and begin a new life in his Kingdom, filled with his peace and joy in the midst of a broken, confused world we find ourselves in.

Second, remember that there is a spiritual battle going on for the souls of all people (Ephesians 6:12), and therefore our fight is not against each other, but against Satan and his evil forces out to destroy us! Don’t fall into this culture’s evil trap of division, labels, tribalism, hatred, and mistrust of other people made in God’s image. Our mission is to be ambassadors and reconcilers, leading others out of the darkness and death of sin into the light and life of Jesus!

How can we do this? Not by just “trying to be good” on our own best effort, but by surrendering to Jesus and living by the power and presence of his Holy Spirit dwelling within all believers. This will lead us from the speech and ways of this fallen world into a new Christ-like pattern of living and thinking:

Galatians 5:16-26 (NIV)   
¹⁶  So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. ¹⁸  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. ¹⁹  The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Finally, rest in your new life and relationship with Jesus! Enjoy his company, talk to him daily, and ask him to help you see others and the world as he sees them. As members of his Kingdom, we have already crossed over from death to eternal life. We will live forever, this world has no more power over us, and Jesus has already won the battle over evil for us. So let God give you his peace and joy, no matter what the circumstances around you.

God calls his people to be different in how we speak, how we act, and how we see others and the world around us. We are to be so different that the world looks at us and says, “I want what you have. I want your peace and joy”.

Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV)
¹⁴  Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵  so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶  as you hold out the word of life….

I leave you with one of my favorite, encouraging passages from the apostle Paul:

Philippians 4:4-8 (ESV)
⁴  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.