by Tommy Karlas
Recently a friend of mine, who is not a Christian, told me he grew up very involved in church and church activities with his family. He said he was listening to the preacher when he was around 11 or 12 and remembers thinking how much he wished what he was hearing was true. But when he looked at how the adults in the church really behaved and spoke outside of the Sunday morning service, he decided it was all BS. In the sermons he would hear about a loving God who wanted us to love and be compassionate towards others, and not to judge lest we be judged. But an hour later the same people sitting in those pews, listening to the same sermon he just heard, would suddenly become incredibly petty and judgmental. Once he became old enough to make his own choice, he understandably stopped going and wrote the whole thing off for good.
Have you, or someone you know, experienced something similar to this? In our culture we hear people call Christians hypocrites all the time. And it’s examples like this which can perpetuate such sentiments and turn people off to Christianity. How many times have we heard someone say “I believe in God but not organized religion?”(something I used to say) Which by organized religion, we really meant institutionalized Christianity. Or how about some of the people you sometimes see on street corners protesting in the name of Jesus who clearly have nothing but hate and condemnation in their hearts? If this is many people’s only exposure to Christianity, then it’s no wonder they don’t want anything to do with it. And sure, there are many reasons why someone may or may not believe in Christ that are not purely rational.
But as St Augustine pointed out over 1600 years ago, we should never judge any philosophy by it’s abuse. And if you’ve had almost any exposure to Jesus and his words whatsoever, then it’s easy to see people like this are not following Him. Not that anyone does perfectly, but it does seem too often to be religious people who look down on others and have more a spirit of self-righteousness and veiled-contempt than a spirit of love. What’s ironic about when it’s Christians is they are still believing in a merit system type of salvation; they still think they are saved by all their good deeds and not by Christ alone. And believing this can not only lead to believing God is in your debt, but also into becoming very narrow-minded, legalistic, and judgmental.
The truth is none of us live up to our own standards that we hold others to, and all human beings are hypocrites to a certain extent. And the impulse to judge others is something we all have to fight all over again everyday. But if we are going to call Jesus Christ our Lord, then we have to take seriously what he says. We have to try our very best to follow His teachings and example, while at the same time knowing we are not saved by our own actions. And we should never assume to know the true state of another person’s heart because, for all we know, someone who has never stepped foot into a church might be closer to the spirit of God than someone who sits in a pew every Sunday morning (though I believe church is important). C.S. Lewis said “true humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” And that kind of humility leads to compassion and forgiveness towards others because that is exactly what Christ has given to us on the cross.
There are all sorts of ways people come to trust in Jesus Christ. And God will work in a person’s heart as He sees fit. So we don’t want to be too overbearing with our beliefs because that can turn folks off from Him too. But the most persuasive thing we could ever do to bring someone to Christ is to be Christ-like. What I mean is our willingness to obey Him—by forgiving, loving, praying for, suffering-long, and keeping a soft heart towards not only our friends, but our enemies—will do more to show the love of Christ and bring someone to Him than anything else. What is more, it will bring us closer to Him.
