CoauthorU Writes
Us
Christians
Christians - By CoauthorU Associate, Merwin Severtson
Gandhi the spiritual and peaceful resistance leader
for India at the end of British colonization of that country, was
famous for many things but I want to borrow from him what he had to say
(paraphrased) about becoming a Christian.
He is reported to have
said that he had read the Bible and would have liked to become a
Christian as a result from what he found there, but having also been
exposed to Christian's behavior he decided against it.
Really.
Who
could blame him? I mean seriously... just to take a look at our
collective behavior is enough to turn anyone off.
In looking at
my own behavior HONESTLY, I am surprised that I have friends at all!
I
am arrogant, opinionated, and "everyone is entitled to my opinion", or
so the caption read on the coffee cup one of my daughters bought me for
my birthday a few years back.
And when we bunch Christians
together we tend to bolster one another, making our self righteousness
balloon into something extremely grotesque.
Anyone being exposed
to this behavior, who is not a believer and not desperate for God's
ability to save them from a life devoted to self destruction, would
rightly run the other direction to escape.
And following that
line of reasoning, should we be greatly surprised by their anger? This
anger could and does translate often to a stumbling block and an excuse
for them to never approach a belief in God.
That isn't to say the
persecutions that are leveled at Christians are our fault, but it isn't
to say that we don't "own" some collective responsibility for the
revulsion that prompts it as well.
Sure we love our brethren, we
should. The Bible encourages us to prefer the brethren.
But if
you were to survey "the brethren" I think you would be greatly surprised
to find out that a lot of "us" prefer non-believers to believers.
Could
it be that non-believers are easier to be around, more restful?
Think
about it... if this were true, why would this be? I believe the answer
is simple, Jesus came to heal those that are sick. These would be those
who are really messed up for a lot of reasons.
This basically
translates into some really messed up lifestyles, thinking patterns,
attitudes, etc. all manner of various dysfunctional syndromes, being
miraculously changed both immediately and through long term processes.
Meanwhile,
they have been thrust into the conformist meatgrinder of church that
expects them to understand that, now their behaviors are forgiven (which
they are), and they themselves, are now fixed and appropriate (which
usually, they are not).
And within the confines of this assembly
line, cookie cutter approach, we have the blind leading the blind, in
the sense that the newbies are able to look at the old-timers for the
examples of how to act, and they learned from other old timers... so on
and so forth.
Through all of this, the best examples of Christian maturity are the ones that get ignored as examples simply because it is funner to follow the worst examples and after all, "...aren't they saved too?" And so the old timers that are usually "pinched" for the purpose of mentoring, are far from humble, ultra-conformists who place more importance on adherence to their particular denominational expectations (traditions)... than the grace, mercy and liberty of the Gospel.
This spiritual inheritance that is passed along to the
newbies creates a new generation of "mentors" that unwaveringly expect
those that they mentor to conform to the same self righteous traditions.
Please
do not misunderstand what I am saying!
None of this has got a
thing to do with whether or not the errant old-timers are saved or
whether the newbie is saved, if they believe in Christ then they are
saved.
But it can have a lot to do with whether or not the angry
atheist will be saved, unless the Lord can miraculously get the person
past how he or she sees us behaving.
Gandhi... could not get past
the (at best) problematic behavior of those who followed Christ.
The
number one complaint from the atheistic ranks is that we (Christians)
are extremely hypocritical.
Please be honest, do not try to
defend this, or any other fruit of the flesh to them.
Yes we are
hypocritical, we all are... all, humans are. And honesty, is the best
approach when we are confronted with our own shortcomings, it happens to
be the number one area where the ability to be humble, and the fruit of
the Spirit, self control, surfaces. After all, "we overcome by the
blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony".
We have in our
favor as our advocate, and counsel, Jesus. Tap into His honesty, His
humble nature and His wisdom and represent His truth.
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." If we are honest and open with our short comings we become the humble example. The one that is more capable to set the fence walking, potential believer free and set the better example for the newbie. Newbies need mature mentors and they seldom get them.