Luke 12.4-5,8-9 commands, I’m speaking to you as dear friends. Don’t be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, Who holds your entire life—body and soul—in His hands………“Stand up for Me among the people you meet and the Son of Man will stand up for you before all God’s angels. But if you pretend you don’t know Me, do you think I’ll defend you before God’s angels? MSG

This is how Christians are to live in the marketplace. The answer to the question, what does it mean to be a Christian in the marketplace, is given here. Fear God alone, and make Him known, so that all might come to know Him as God and Savior. Simple but not easy.

Not easy because the religious bullies are those whose religion is antithetical to Christianity. Theirs is the religion of self and it has no tolerance for that which rebukes it, calls it wrong, and proclaims something other than that we are god, free to do and believe whatever we choose.

The religious bullies reside in our HR and legal departments, telling the Christians to be silent and say nothing about their bigoted, homophobic religion that believes God made all people from two people, male and female He made them in His image, to bring forth children that would know Him, glorify Him, and obey His commands.

The religious bullies reside in our social media, cancelling those who espouse absolute truth, the truth that is only found in God’s Word where His ways are recorded so that all people might walk in them and escape the judgement to come.

God has commanded His people to love Him first and most and to love their neighbor as themselves which we do best when we introduce them to Jesus Who alone can rescue them from the eternal torment of hell. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It is God’s people who have been commissioned to speak His word in public spaces so that all people everywhere might repent and believe in the One Who came to earth to save them from the penalty of sin.

The marketplace is desperate for Christians who fear God and stand for Jesus.