While driving recently, I noticed a street was closed. A large orange sign
with black lettering stood at the barricade. It said, "Fresh Oil." I knew
exactly what it meant. I was grateful the street was closed--I did not wish
to splatter liquid tar on my car. I had no confusion about "why" the street
was closed. I had no complaint to make.
However, the sign would confuse those who knew the words but not the
meaning. Some would not call the layer of gooey, black liquid recently
placed on that road surface "oil." "Oil" is the liquid one places in a car
engine, or squirts on a moving part, or uses to be a protective coating, or
uses as a fuel. (Any of you remember "coal oil"?) That gooey liquid often
used in road construction is called "tar." "Oil" is fairly easy to remove.
Have you removed "tar" from a car's surface recently?
What does "fresh" mean? "Fresh" as contrasted to what? To "stale"? "Oil"
or "tar" has an expiration date? Have you ever read an orange sign with
black letters at a road construction site that said, "Stale Tar"?
Okay! That is a ridiculous observation. Never mind that "Fresh Oil" and
"Stale Tar" contain the same number of alphabetic letters. The point is
simple: we know what a "Fresh Oil" sign means at a road construction site.
We always have known the meaning of that sign. Some of us learned that
meaning "the hard way" before signs were used.
The Christians at Corinth were the kind of church that could fill a preacher
with joy one minute and break his heart the next. Paul said to them, "If to
others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my
apostleship in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 9:2). In another letter to the same
Christians, he wrote, "You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and
read by all men" (2 Corinthians 3:2).
Ouch! What preacher would want people who were not Christians to "read"
Christians at a place and conclude he taught them internal rivalry,
adultery, law suits, prostitution, mutual contempt, marital stress, and
worship wars? What preacher would want people to "read" the church and
conclude, "That congregation of Christians threatens our society!"
Christians must realize we do not exist in a vacuum. We must understand
others "read" us all the time. Too often we understand ourselves, but to
those who "read" us, we look, sound, and act unattractively ridiculous. May
our "signs" clearly declare Christ's value.
May we help hasten the day when "Christian" commonly means blessing. As we
are "read" by all people, may our "signs" be as clear to others as they are
to us.
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