Matthew 5:14 – “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden…”
As we near the end of the great book on leadership, Nehemiah, chapter 11 gives six reasons why God calls His people to cities to do ministry and today we’ll look at several more reasons.
Two, some believers should intentionally live in major cities because of their strategic importance. This is exactly what happened in Nehemiah’s day as roughly 10 percent of the people were chosen by God through the casting of lots to determine who should relocate to the city for missions purposes.
Those who moved into the city relocated to the neighborhoods in the city where their families had resided in previous generations. In our day, this would be akin to various families taking responsibility upon themselves to be missionaries to their neighborhood and maintaining that ministry from one generation to the next.
Three, believers living in cities should love the whole city and serve the common good. Christians and churches in cities are to live as Jesus taught (Matthew 5:14), as a city within the city whose beliefs and behaviors are countercultural to the city so that the Kingdom models what a truly great city could look like under the rule of King Jesus.
This happens as our beliefs and behaviors are guided by the Scriptures so that how we do such things as gender, sex, work, money, power, family, and pleasure is in a manner that is different, or holy.
Four, urban believers will pay a price to do so. Cities tend to be statistically non-Christian and are also filled with people that are vocally not Christian and therefore opposition and criticism is to be expected. Sin also tends to be concentrated in cities because of the anonymity they provide people. Lastly, cities are expensive, especially for families raising children.
Over the next couple of days, we’ll look more in depth at the final two reasons.
What are some of the greatest needs that only the gospel and Christian faith can meet where you live?