unchristian theme 1: hypocritical
as i began reading this book, i struggled with pride. i struggled with viewing this from the “others” perspective.i struggled thinking that the things said by other people could actually be true of me. i firmly believe that this was a struggle that satan put into my mind/heart to blind me from some of the truths that are crippling jesus ministry on our earth and in my generation. people are seeking. there is no debate. if we don’t show them love (jesus) then we drop the ball, simply. a 35 year old believer from california was quoted as saying
“Christians have become political, judgemental, intolerant, weak, religious, angry, and without
balance. Christianity has become a nice Sunday drive. Where is the living God, the Holy
Spirit, an amazing Jesus, the love, the compassion, the holiness? This type of life, how I yearn
for that.”
this is the reason. people want to form relationships. they want intimacy. we want closeness, compassion, love, etc. jesus left us with the responsibility through his church to be love (Him) to others. now, what are we doing? what have we, as a church, been doing? lets look at this first topic: hypoctical.
“Outsiders (non believing 19-26 year olds) consider us hypocritical - saying one thing and doing another - and they are skeptical of our morally superior attitudes. They say christians pretend to be something unreal, portreying a polished image that is not accurate. Christians think that the church is a place for virtuous and morally mature people.”
i think we all know that hypocrisy was something that jesus did not tolerate from the pharisees & saduccees. if you doubt this, i’d turn over to matthew 23:13-28. simply, the hypocrisy is not lip service, but rather our lifestyles. now listen, i’m writing this blog post on a $499 iPad 2, so i have no room whatsoever to claim that i have all my priorities together, but you can see the image of hypocrisy that “outsiders” might see if we are claiming, “we’re all equal in God”, but are living lives that we know are not in keeping with the things we know to be true.
mainly, outside of lifestyle, i believe the book identified a crucial element to this hypocritical label: it’s not just our lifestyle that has gotten us into trouble; its the very way in which we convey the priorities of being a christian. the most common message people hear from us is that christianity is a religion of rules and regulations. they think of us as hypocritical because they are measuring us by our own standards. think about this for a minute. have you thought about the significance of this statement? one of the primary reasons people are turned off to the church, jesus, christianity, hope, love, joy, etc. is our own percepton of faith as ‘living a good life, not sinnng, being good.’
explanation: if my personal faith centers around ‘being good’ or ‘not sinning’…how likely am i to display a transparent life in which all of my faults are laid bare in front of everyone? not likely, in my opinion. i believe this is where the hypocrisy comes in. we show this sense of holiness to protect ourselves, instead of reaching out to people transparently and saying, “i suffer from _____, just like you. but i have hope, power, strength, love, & joy because of Jesus.” this is our ministry. its not to congregate in multi million dollar buildings and sit with our friends for an hour a week. it is life. ministry should be completely normal. personally, there is a famiy of homeless people that attend our church in florence, italy. they come almost every sunday morning and almost every sunday morning they sit in the back alone. the wife normally speaks to two people, maybe three, and its only to ask for $. its difficult for me to look past that. its difficult for me not to judge or be skeptical of her & her husband, but that is not jesus. thats not my calling.
fact of the matter is, we’ll never do it right. until we start excepting our faults (publically) in our churches and realizing that we, “all have sinned and do fall short” (romans 3:23) we’ll never escape this branding. but, if we live a life worthy of the callng and live a life rooted in & following jesus we’ll display the fruit of his Holy Spirit. let’s accept the challenge to live differently, but not in a way that others are turned off to whose we are but rather drawn to Him.
