A teenage boy I know carries around a Bible to read in his free time. He doesn’t make a big deal about it or flaunt it or use it against anyone. He just likes to read it. I overheard someone say to him one day, “I guess you’re a Christian, right? You carry that Bible around all the time.” His reply surprised me. He said, “Well, I guess I am, but I don’t want to call myself that anymore. Too many people call themselves Christians and then don’t act like it, and they give Christianity a bad name. I prefer to just call myself a Christ-follower so nobody thinks the ugly behavior represents me.”
He’s not wrong.
Too often, we hear comments like this:
“Christians are the biggest hypocrites I know.”
“If that’s how a Christian behaves, I don’t want to go to church.”
If you consider yourself a Christian, those comments likely make you cringe. Maybe you feel judged because you don’t act like that at all, or maybe you feel guilty because you do. Let’s look at both sides of this for a moment.
Take any city, school, ethnic group, public meeting, workplace, or maybe even your own home. Anytime you have a large population represented, there is always one who is louder than the rest but represents nobody else in that crowd. It’s embarrassing. Yet, that’s what gets posted or makes the news headlines, thus creating a public bias for or against the group as a whole. Knowing that, I watch the news differently than I used to. Blanket statements aren’t fair. Nobody always does anything, and that goes for Christians as well. Are there a few who act like fools and show people how not to behave? Of course. Does that represent what Christianity stands for? Not at all. I will also add that just because people go to church does not mean they are perfect. In fact, they go to church because they aren’t. They are not hypocrites. They are just humans, learning from mistakes just like everyone else. So, let’s be more careful about lumping everyone into one category, shall we?
On the other hand, if we are being honest, statements like the ones above are also not unfounded. Each one of those comments likely has a painful story behind them.
They have either personally been burned or watched someone they love get hurt by a church or a person who calls themselves a Christian.
So, if you do consider yourself a Christian, I challenge you to do an honest self-assessment. Would anyone outside your church not want to attend because of your actions or behavior? Pause right here before you read on and genuinely give it some thought.
Are we loving people well? I’m not talking about the people who look, vote and act like us. I’m talking about everyone. The ones from different cultures, political and social backgrounds, and the ones with different lifestyles. The ones who don’t dress like you or act like you, or maybe even offend you.
Let’s remember the greatest commandment, straight from the mouth of Jesus. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-34)
Jesus didn’t make any exceptions. He didn’t say to love everyone except the pregnant teen, or gender confused, or drug addicted. He didn’t say to avoid the one who is tattooed, pierced, or homeless. Those are the people he invited in and showed the most grace. Are we doing that? If not, then maybe we should feel judged, because we aren’t living up to our own standards. We have to do better, myself included. If we are going to call ourselves Christians, we have to love like Jesus did or we will end up pushing people away from him instead of bringing them closer. In fact, do you remember who Jesus had the most issue with? The religious elite who thought they were better than everyone else.
I love this quote from Rick Warren. “Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.”
Anyone can love people who are just like them. I challenge you to love the ones who aren’t. Love the unlovable. After all, to them, maybe the unlovable one is you.
Just food for thought.
Have a blessed week, friends!
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