Just riffing a bit...
Christianity has largely become a tool, something people use to further their agendas. This is not how it should be. Jesus' name is used to promote ideas that prop up wealthy, corporate interests. He is turned into a petty politician.
And people turn away.
Christianity is used as a weapon. We beat down those whose sins are "worse" than our own. We tell people to repent, to turn or burn, to become like us. We forget to show how Christ lived and instead focus on salvation from Hell while forgetting the idea of salvation in this life.
And people turn away.
We are smug. Sure of ourselves. People don't like us because they are enemies of God! We treat hurting people the way that Jesus treated the self-righteous and treat the self-righteous as our bosom friends. If there's a problem, it's not with us. It's not with our message or our method. The only problem is with those who won't listen to us, with the ones we're preaching at. They don't listen because they're of their father the devil!
And people turn away.
God have mercy on us.
4 comments:
Hi Mark,
I appreciate the concern that people have for loving people the way that Jesus loved, I just think that many times well intentioned people haven't really thought through the ramifications of Jesus warnings. I believe this book goes too far. On what scriptural basis do we expect that Christians who are trying to be "like Christ" will be any better received than their savior who was crucified and hated for his perfect proclamation of grace and truth.
The "outsiders" spoken of in "Unchristan" are people who (at least at this point) reject who Jesus says he is. Reasons and excuses will abound, but God tells us that real reason people refuse Jesus is because their deeds are evil and His light will expose the truth. It's all right there in the context of John 3:16. I know that it was true for me. Until the life changing power of God came over me, I was once like everyone else and by nature, a child of wrath.
The truth isn't easy to hear and that is why, time and again, Christ warns us that our message will not be well received. If non-believers called Jesus "of the devil", how much more will the same people malign those of his household.
Can we as Christians be better at showing grace, absolutely! We must always strive to be compassionate while we tell the world the wonderful message of God's forgiveness of sin through Christ. In order for people to understand forgiveness, they also have to understad their sin against God (and thus the need for forgiveness). We are by no means perfect in this and never will be.
But to look to non-christians (who reject who christ truely is) for a report card on how we are doing at imitating him makes no sense at all. We need to hold ourselves up to scripture and not opinions of those who reject the ultimate embodiment of Truth and call it a lie.
Perhaps. Those who do not follow Christ certainly don't fully understand Christ. However, it seems the people who are rejecting us aren't the same types of people who rejected Christ.
Christ was rejected by the religious, the powerful, those who protected the status quo. Nowdays it seems that Christians are rejected because they are the ones who protect the status quo.
I brought this book up to two different classes at church, and both, as soon as I mentioned the numbers, identified most of the reasons why people reject us. And they seemed frustrated that we are giving this appearance to the world.
It's a difficult thing for us to step outside of ourselves and see us as others see us. When we do, we will realize that yes, some of their perceptions are false. But we also may pick up on some faults and weaknesses that we have that we have trouble seeing ourselves.
In the end, if we are keeping people from seeing Jesus because we're showing them too much of us--and I believe that is what's happening--we need this self-examination desperately.
Thanks so much for having this respectful discourse. I guess I’m a little confused on what basis you made the following comment: “However, it seems the people who are rejecting us aren't the same types of people who rejected Christ.” In the book the people polled about how we’re doing are non-Christians who have chosen to reject Christ as savior. Everyone polled in the book who rejects Christians, also rejects Christ. The authors were trying to create a cause and effect relationship between the two. I think all of us would agree that anyone who would reject Christ’s truth would also reject the people who follow him and speak of his truth.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 that if any of us have a disagreement with another Christian, “Dare you take it before the ungodly for judgment?” Now in all fairness I must point out that Paul is not speaking of the issue at hand when he makes this statement, but there is a general principle at work here: When Christians need someone to judge a question or a dispute even men of little account in the Church, men who are under the influence of the Holy Spirit, are more competent than non-believers to correctly judge even small matters. If we dare not go before the ungodly over even minor disagreements, should we really go them for some sort of “Christian Report Card” that tells us how well we’re doing following Christ! God forbid us!
It would not be hard for a non Christian to make the claim (as Paul does on occasion, I’m speaking like a fool here) that Jesus was “overly critical” of the Sadducees, “judgmental” of the Pharisees, “insensitive” towards the rich young man, “Fault Finding” towards the scribes, “condemning” towards the people of Korazin and Bethsaida, and “nitpicking” towards the experts in the Law. After all, there were many people who disliked Jesus and walked away from Him, some of them commenting of his teaching “This is a hard saying, who can accept it.” There were still others who absolutely hated Jesus, the perfect example of truth & grace who we are trying to imitate, enough to arrest and convict an innocent man on the basis of false accusations. There were still more people who loathed and despised Jesus enough to demand the release of a violent and rebellious criminal in exchange for the execution of an innocent man, all in an effort to silence the perfect combination of truth and grace who, once again, it is our goal to emulate. Yet we have the audacity to suggest that when people hate our brothers and sisters and speak poorly of them, that our brothers and sisters are perhaps getting in the way of the message and thus condemning people to hell who would of otherwise been open to the message of Christ if not for Christians. It’s one thing to examine ourselves in light of scripture, but this is going too far.
It is definitely hard to hear, but the Bible tells us why people reject Christ: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20 in the context of John 3:16) Jesus tells the people whom he is sending out to spread the good news that they will be “hated by all men” because of Christ (Matthew 10:22). There are so many warnings of persecution in the Bible. The examples of Christians that we have in the Bible were people hated for their proclamation of grace and truh, and those who did it best were murdered. Amidst all of this we see the warning of Christ in Luke chapter 6: “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.”
There’s no question that all Christians, at some time or another, will fail in their efforts to represent Christ in a positive way. There’s also no question that Christians should continually examine themselves in the light of Jesus’ teachings about loving your neighbor as yourself. The question here however, is whether or not those who reject the light can speak intelligently and objectively about the right mixture of grace and truth, when they don’t even agree with us about what truth is. Can we really obtain an accurate “progress report” from people who reject the concept of absolute truth and (according to scripture) hate the light of Christ? Absolutely not. The scriptures are what we hold ourselves up to, not public opinion. This is a dangerous train of thought brother. With such a focus on opinions and how we are received, many young Christians might be persuaded that proclaiming the Good News is more about persuasion than the life changing power of God at work in the life of a sinner. God bless!
I think that what it comes down to is this: the people who rejected Christ were the religious and political establishment. The people who reject us are often the oppressed, the questioning, the marginalized--the very people who were attracted to Christ. I think this difference is a problem.
We are called to be salt and light to the world. We don't do this without listening to them and engaging them as people. There is a difference in communicating with people and preaching at them; the latter is, I'm afraid, what the church I have been a part of has done most of my life.
Paul talked about becomign all things to all men that he might save some. He--and Jesus--met people where they were. Listened to them. Sure we have to separate legitimate concerns from false assumptions, but both are there.
I believe we need to start treating people as valuable humans who have something to say and sometimes even understand things that we don't.
We are to be light to them to guide their way, not to blind them.
Anyway, I wrote something elsewhere yesterday that's connected to this, and I'll probably publish a form of it here.
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