It makes me sad to see how Christians are being portrayed in the world these days. Why do Christians get these distorted and hurtful labels placed on them? I've seen the words bigot, discriminatory, anti-gay, close-minded, hateful, judgemental, out-of-touch and irrelevant all tied with Christianity in recent news articles, reports, blogs, social media and videos. I wonder what Jesus himself would say if someone called him those names? He'd probably give that person a big hug because, well, he's Jesus and he loves everyone including sinners! Wait! We're all sinners, so he must love us all!
Who's to blame? I blame us!
I blame part of this bad perception on some Christians themselves. See, there is an expectation of Christian behavior as it's clearly outlined in the Bible. When non-Believers (or sometimes-Believers) see people calling themselves Christian acting in a way that doesn't align with the Biblical teachings of Christianity, then labels are put on people as a whole. Yes, a messed up stereo-type.
Who's to blame? I blame them!
I blame part on the media for picking and exploiting stories about Christians that show those who are not behaving in a Christ-like manner perpetuating a misguided idea about what Chritianity is really all about. Lets face it, there are some crazies out there who don't do the rest of us any favors. But instead of over-looking these stories, the media will often put them front and center. When was the last time you saw a major media story that showed a Christian living out his faith in a positive way?
Who's to blame? I blame us some more!
I blame social-media for it's fast paced, sarcastic humor and incorrect message spreading as well. How many times have you seen cynical cartoon, images, web-videos and the like, that reduce Christians down to a point where a reader just laughs and mocks them. This denigrates Christianity and removes all the loving wonderful aspects of all of Christ's teachings. It is making a mockery of what Jesus' purpose and what real Christ-followers believe.
Check yourself, before you wreck yourself
So what's a Jesus loving Christ-follower to do? I think those poking fun of and mislabeling Christians don't truly comprehend what it means to be Christian. No one is perfect (only Jesus was), but all of us are forgiven when we give our lives over to Christ. In doing so, we're held to a different standard. We can't hate, like the world does. We can't be bigoted. We can't discriminate. We have to be as my Pastor says, "Jesus with skin on." If we are to change the misperception of what a Christian is all about, we need to match our actions and words with scripture. Does what you do or say align with God's word?
Separation anxiety
Often times it feels like we are under attack. And rightly so, because well...we are. Whether you believe that evil does exist (Satan) or not, you must agree that the best way to keep people from having a personal relationship with God through Christ is to separate His people from Him. Worldly activities and government policies will often subtly work to separate people from God. We need to remain faithful. We need to remain in God's grace by following His word (scripture) and acting and behaving in ways that please God and build up His Kingdom. This is tough to do. But Jesus made it easy for us. Pray and live in faith and God will strengthen you. When asked what is the most important Commandment, Jesus answered:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”(Mark 12:30-31).
24/7
If you love the Lord your God then in turn you will love His people, His creation. But also, if you love your neighbor as yourself, you will also love the Lord God! Kind of neat how those two most important commandments go hand-in-hand. But what the world needs to understand is that in living out "Love the Lord your God...", a Christian is filled with God's love through Jesus 24/7. It's not a Sunday-thing. It's not just on Christmas and Easter. It's day and night. In doing so, a person is humble and submissive before God and does whatever he can to please God through worship, prayer and every aspect of life. God is the center of all, He is not somewhere on your priority list. Your thoughts, opionions, actions, activities and words should serve to glorify God to best you know how. It is done through a continual personal relationship with Jesus.
A Christian cannot do this and turn his back to God when there is a hot-topic or issue facing our culture today. A Christian needs to keep his focus on God while walking in the world. A Christian must not waver from obedience to God just because it's easier to go with the flow of popular opinion. Loving your neighbor as yourself does not mean that its ok to turn away from God or his word in order to do so. It also doesn't mean your neighbor is always right. God is always right and just. As a Christian we can't pick the parts of scripture that we like and ignore the rest. Yes, love your neighbor, but first and foremost love the Lord your God. You can't love the Lord your God and be intentionally disobedient at the same time.
Pride and truth
Personally, I think what our culture today struggles the most with is pride and truth.
Pride. We are a culture of prideful people who can take care of ourselves and don't need God in our lives. People reject Him, or turn away from Him because they are living a happy, comfortable life and are good people. I don't have a way to convince anyone they need God's grace, that's something a person has to accept for themselves. I pray for those people to accept God's free gift of salvation without having some life altering tragedy in order for them to realize they need Him.
Truth. The second thing that our culture doesn't like is truth. The Bible is full of truth. If you are calling yourself a Christian, then the Bible is well...your truth. It's your Bible! It is truth. Sometimes it is hard to accept because some biblical truth is contrary to what is acceptable and "right" in our culture today. Before accepting Christ in my life, I often went back and forth on issues because both sides made sense from time to time. But what was missing was the knowledge of truth defined by authority. When I let God rule my life, I found that authority....God himself, the Creator. I'm pretty sure He knows what's right and wrong. I now know truth. I pray for those who do not yet know truth, and that they come to know it through His grace, and word.
The major difficulty with pride and truth is that we often have to set aside our pride in order to accept truth.
What to do
I will continue to read God's word and pray so that I can be like Jesus to the best of my ability. I will continue to to try show people God's love and grace through how He works through me. I pray my actions and words glorify God and do not serve to separate His people from Him but instead encourage others to seek Him out through Jesus. This in no way means I am perfect. I make mistakes.
I am a Christian, not a bigot. I love my neighbor no matter his race.
I pray for the salvation through Christ for people of all races.
I am a Christian, my aim is not to discriminate but to love my neighbor no matter his religious belief.
I pray for the salvation through Christ for people of all religions and those without any belief system. I pray their hearts are opened to God through Jesus.
I am a Christian and will demonstrate love for my neighbor no matter his sexual orientation.
I pray for the salvation through Christ for people struggling with sexual addiction, confusion and differing orientations. I pray for their strength to overcome sin.
I am a Christian. I am not closed-minded or hateful. I love my neighbor no matter his judgement on me because I identify myself with Christ. I pray for the salvation through Christ for all people overwhelmed with pride, cynicism and judgement.
I am a Christian. I am not perfect. I thank God each day for His loving grace.
If you're wondering where I got this blog idea from, well, it came from God Himself.
"And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority."Colossians 2: 6-10
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