I was a philosophy and religious studies major in college. Basically, I learned everything most people can barely understand all for the purpose of being smarter than YOU. Yup, I wanted to be smarter than you.
I could honestly care less if God was represented well in my classes; I just wanted to prove you wrong. For me, the argument was no longer about wither God existed or not, it was all about me being smarter than the person next to me.
I really wanted to write that blog or paper that eloquently revealed the foolishness of those around me. If you were pro-life I was pro-choice, if you were pro-choice then I was pro-life, conservative then I was liberal, liberal then I was conservative, etc. I simply wanted to beat you in an argument. I loved knowledge but I despised truth. However, there was one group of people I eagerly waited to pounce upon and destroy; Christians.
Confused?
I thought that if I could zealously reveal the hypocrisy and foolishness of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in a public setting then JUST MAYBE those around me would actually learn what it meant to be a TRUE Christian and then fall in love with Jesus. If I could show that not all Christians were naive and senseless then my job would be complete, even if it meant condemning my fellow brothers and sisters in the process. It was a worthy sacrifice.
I look back upon my life then and honestly it was all to puff up my own ego, it was for my glory, my satisfaction. I had to be a somebody, even if it meant making everyone around me feel like a nobody. I had no idea who I was in Christ.
I mention this because I keep coming across all these articles being reposted on facebook. Articles with titles like, ‘Response to Marriage wasn’t for me,” “Sexy Christianity,” “God’s not Dead,” etc. Articles and blogs about Christian movies coming out, ideas of marriage, radical Christianity, and more. However, all these blogs are written by Christians critiquing and negatively stereotyping fellow Christians. A brother in Christ will write one thing only to have another brother publicly respond with a blog that basically says, “I know better than you, don’t be such a fool. Don’t worry society, we’re not all idiots.”
I just get distraught when Christians harshly criticize one another from places of pride rather than love. It’s good, right, and necessary to hold one another accountable to live in a way that glorifies God, to not run away from conflict, but when we do it from places of superiority rather than humility it simply furthers division and offense in the church.
Who would want to be a part of a family that appears to constantly be in a civil war? Let us approach each other in love and address the issue at hand, yes, but let us not stand on our pedestal of righteousness and condemn brothers and sisters via social media.
I understand I am calling the kettle black. All you need to do is read some of my previous blogs.
A humble saint has nothing more suspicious that his own heart. The worse hypocritical Pharisee than the one next to us is the one inside of us. While I am a son of God I also realize I did nothing to earn it, so I am a nobody here to tell everybody about somebody who can save everybody.
I know I am young and I have much to learn. I just hope I may learn how to better love all those around me.
John 13:35
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
