Cynicism is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit

Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  Ephesians 5: 8 – 10

On the eve of what we are promised will be the closest General Election result in years, I woke with the song I’d like to teach the world to sing on my mind. I have had this experience before when I awake with a random song going round my head. It usually means God wants to draw my attention to something.

I duly looked up the song on YouTube and was reminded it was by the New Seekers from 1972. I can only say I was shocked by the naivety and innocence of the song and singers. I was then even more shocked by my cynical reaction to it. I thought that if this was shown on any media other than an historical / retro / do you remember? item it would be laughed off the screen.

Cynicism is most definitely not a fruit of the Holy Spirit nor is its mate scepticism yet these attitudes are so prevalent in society, especially British society, today. Cynicism is ‘an inclination to question whether something will happen or whether it is worthwhile.’  Scepticism doubts the truth of something. Nowhere is this more prevalent than with attitudes to politics and politicians.

Cynicism and scepticism say there is no point in voting; all politicians are untrustworthy and only in it for themselves. This is first of all unfair to many hard working men and women and secondly, washing our hands of the political system is a huge abdication of responsibility.

As Christians we need to be doing all we can to influence that system and make our voice heard in Westminster.  That starts with voting.  We need to vote into parliament men and women of integrity who will be doing God's will in this nation, even if they do not realise it.  I am not sure Cyrus, king of the Persians, realised he was God's anointed but he certainly did God's will in expediting the Jews return from exile (Isaiah 45:1).

Prayer, letter writing, lobbying, marching or even standing for local or national elections are all vital roles for the Christian today. However, on the eve of the election, our most important role today is not to let cynicism and scepticism of the political system silence us but to get out and vote. Authorities are placed over us by God himself (Romans 13: 1) but we can and should have a say in who they are.

Our vote may seem small and insignificant but it does count. It may make all the difference.

Dealing with cynicism

Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  Ephesians 5: 8 – 10

From Ephesians 4: 17, through chapter 5 to chapter 6: 9, Paul urges the Ephesians into Godly living. His teaching is very specific, comprehensive and practical and is a wonderful if rather challenging exhortation of how to live. Only some of Jesus’ teaching is even more challenging.

Ephesus was a major centre of commerce with flourishing temple worship to the Roman goddess Diana so the Christians in Ephesus had a lot to contend with. This must be why Paul gave them so much advice on how to live right in the midst of idolatry and a Godless society.  The problems we face in our societies today may not have much to do with worshipping Diana but the challenges are just as real and difficult for the modern day Christian. We too must live as children of the light in our Godless societies and it can be very hard.

In UK one of the major obstacles to Godly living, very prevalent in society is cynicism. Cynicism is ‘an inclination to question whether something will happen or whether it is worthwhile.’ Cynicism’s first cousin is scepticism which doubts the truth of something. Cynics tend to look down on the kind of advice Paul gave the Ephesians with a certain amount of derision. People feel it is not worthwhile to live the sort of life Paul was talking about in today’s culture; there is nothing in it for them. Cynics doubt people’s motives so if Christians are kind, loving, generous, merciful and so on cynics are sceptical about why they are doing it. 

Cynicism though is also prevalent in the church and people extravagant in worship or giving or who are enthusiastic about God and his love are viewed very cautiously and as ‘over the top.’ The same love, kindness, grace and mercy are viewed suspiciously as ‘too good to be true’ but that is exactly what God is – too good, kind, generous, loving, and merciful to be true except it is true!

Cynicism and scepticism like unbelief need to be rooted out of our lives. Cynics find it very hard to trust God and to believe that he wants good things for his children because for a cynic there is always an ulterior motive – God must want something so what is this going to cost me and so doubt clouds their minds. However we know the full price for salvation, forgiveness and a life of love was paid by Jesus on the cross and all we need is to walk by faith – hard if you are a sceptic.

The solution is to put out arms of love and trust to God, declaring and believing that what he has said is true and so silence cynicism and scepticism with words of life and faith.