When I was younger I went through a weird phase.
Of course I have all the photos with strange clothing choices and wild hair to prove the more superficial portion of it.
But on a deeper level my thoughts may have been almost identical to yours were when it comes to how I viewed the church and my faith.
I knew Jesus. I LOVED JESUS.
But I was not a fan of the church.
Usually, the church angered me.
I heard Christians say hateful things to other people
because of politics
because of their sexuality
because of someone’s interpretation on baptism, spiritual gifts, or other issue that may divide the church.
Gossiping, lying, and gossiping more.
Making remarks about someone’s appearance
or assumptions about who they are as a person before even speaking with them.
I often felt very judged too despite being a committed believer.
Thankfully I stopped caring about that…BUT I was still angry for the sake of other people.
Jesus said to love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you.
Then God revealed something to me one day when I was speaking with a nonbeliever who was angry about the same things. He was ranting about all the things he hated about Christians (which is pretty funny when I think about it because we were friends and he knew I was a Christian.)
Suddenly I realized something wonderfully beautiful about our fundamental beliefs as Christians.
One of our basic beliefs is that every single human is a hypocrite.
(It’s summarized in Christianese as “We are all sinners.”)
But seriously!!
We believe that every person is made in the image of God and because of that we all have this basic understanding of “right” and “wrong.” Some may disagree on what this specifically entails but everyone believes that “rightness” and “wrongness” exist!
“Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to unselfish to—whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first.” ( from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis)
I also have never met a person who believes himself (or herself) to be perfect or blameless. All these people believe in a basic right and wrong despite the fact that these people commit the very acts they believe to be wrong!
So there are many religions that believe in this stuff, but they believe despite their wrongdoings they can earn heaven (or achieve nirvana, or become one with the god Brahman, etc.) I sometimes wonder how people who believe themselves to be one with “the divine” cope with the knowledge that they have done wrong.
Yet we as Christians are the only ones who admit,
“Yes, I am a hypocrite! I have sinned and done SO much damage!”
So in a weird way
we’re some of the few who are extremely honest about our hypocrisy.
Because confessing our wrongdoings and brokenness is a basic requirement for salvation.
But I’d say learn a little bit from the angry atheist I was speaking to. I once heard this cheesy old-school song that says “and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
Just like a typical millennial my first thoughts were, “Why is the word Christian in a song? It sounds so cheesy, and besides I am a ‘Christ follower’ not a Christian!!” Now I think back on my first thoughts and think “that was a really lame first impression.” It doesn’t matter if you call yourself a Christian or a Christ follower really. What’s the difference?
The sentiment of the song is really quite challenging the more I think about it.
We as Christians should strive to love other people so much that we get a reputation for it. So much so that before people know you follow Jesus, they start assuming you follow Jesus because of how you love others.
No more being known for hypocrisy. Let us be known for loving like Jesus.
