There is a quote famously linked to social activist Mahatma Gandhi that states, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Whether or not Gandhi said it, this exact sentiment has been echoed ad nauseam. What do we do when faced with people who religiously reference Jesus, but who fail to accurately reflect him? How are we to respond when entire populations of Christian subculture adopt a tone, rhetoric, or pursuit that looks like a grossly distorted caricature that assaults the actual character of Christ?
Jesus warned his disciples about the religious leaders of his day, saying:
“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” Matthew 15:8-9
In over 25 years as a pastor, I have spent countless hours with people both inside and outside the walls of the church, and some of the most bitter tears in both places have come from wounds issued in the name of Christ. In particular, I have witnessed the following three heart postures as the most frequent offenders. I hold these up first as a mirror for myself, and only then as a charge for my beloved brothers and sisters, that we may reflect a gospel that is purer; worthy of the One whose name we claim.
When Pride Parades as Piety
Pride is the most primal expression of humanity’s fall, and it takes many forms. In the evangelical subculture, pride carries an aura of agitated superiority. It is seen by those who argue about their positions on everyone else’s decisions, but who have completely lost their mission as a minister of reconciliation. Their “gospel” is laden with every kind of baggage, except “Good News.”
Pride looks like selective sanctification, where we elevate certain holy callings of the Christian life, while turning a deaf ear to others: straining a gnat and swallowing a camel.
For instance, if someone thinks being “pro-life” simply means checking a box every four years on a ballot, while doing little to nothing to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our cities in their daily lives (the orphan, the marginalized, the social lepers), they may be surprised to find that they aren’t really pro-life. They’re simply “pro-birth.” The Gospel calls us deeper.
Likewise, many are ready to talk at length about other people’s sexual sins, but very few ready to walk in a contrite spirit at the gluttony, greed, self-righteousness and violence that may be on our own doorsteps. In the words of Jesus, we should be practicing the latter without neglecting the former. If we did, we may be surprised to find how many would run to us to know their true identity.
When Labels Eclipse Love
By this, I mean two things. First, history has shown our universal compulsion to group people into social rankings. We separate by economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and so on. On its own, this isn’t bad. But we never stop there.
The sad truth is that we use these categories — these labels — to silently determine the character, worth, and even the motives of entire populations of people…all without ever drawing near to know someone made in the image of God. Left unchecked, we seek community with those who look just like us, and without fail, we judge most those who sin differently than us.
One of the names for Satan is the “Accuser.” In Greek, the word is katēgoreō, the Categorizer. Satan’s # 1 scheme is to reduce an individual’s humanity down to a label to define them, limit them, and assign their worth. Wherever this happens, I no longer see you as a one-of-a-kind beloved masterpiece, but as an alcoholic, a liberal, a homosexual, or a homeless person. And I judge your worth and my position to you accordingly.
I have wept as I have watched much of our popular “Christian” culture callously celebrate “us vs. them” divisiveness, heavy on condescending labels and hollow on compassionate relational love. Could it be that more people aren’t turning to the beauty of Christ because we’ve bludgeoned them with their blunders and not their belovedness? Jesus, help us.
I see a second way we partner with labels to our demise. In the age of information, it seems everyone is so quick to want to pin labels onto themselves. The number of adjectives, letters, pronouns, and descriptive terms we require to define ourselves scream of an all-out identity crisis. Sometimes identification of a particular struggle or way of processing can be beneficial, but the stats don’t lie. The more labels we require, the sicker we get.
That’s because we weren’t created as orphans to fend for ourselves. We were created in the image of a very Good Father who alone knows the intricate details of our identity that we can’t even begin to verbalize. The problem is, we live in a world surrounded by people who don’t yet know of their created worth or God’s adoration for them. So they scurry to feel seen and safe, never satisfied because our labels are insufficient to fill what only our Lord can.
What’s my point? Sometimes, in a deep desire to “not judge” people, we do a poor job loving them. There has been a huge counter-movement of part of Christendom to simply let others define their own worth; to embrace every self-identified label, and just let people do whatever they want. But this isn’t what you do with anybody you actually love. We are not our own creators, nor are we the gods of our own destinies. That path will never lead to life. Love always protects, linking arms with your friends to ascend together toward the One who formed us and who he says we are.
When a Country Club Resides where a Hospital Once Stood
We live in a consumer culture, with nearly everything around us designed to attract the attention and affection of the customer. A million ways every day, the world is screaming, “the customer is god…YOU are the god of how you spend your life.” Sadly, for many decades, much of the American church has chosen to wade in these waters. The results have been devastating, with many sincere followers of Jesus who have been taught to pursue prayer, the scriptures, and even service as some form of karma or genie’s lamp. “If I simply meet the conditions of the club, I am entitled to blessings.” It is never said, but widely held.
As I write, I reside in the middle of the richest 1% of people in the history of the world. We have greater technological advancements and resources than have ever been laid into human’s laps. And we are entertaining ourselves to death. We seek heaven on earth, but seem to forget we’ve been given the gift of this brief moment to rescue people from hell on earth. We spend our resources on our wants, instead of spending ourselves for the poor.
We leave churches over petty preferences. We treat God’s commands to love our literal neighbor as our literal selves as some sort of a la carte menu for the super spiritual. We confuse ‘knowing’ God’s Word with living it, drowning in comfort, and oddly, resenting God for the next item on our wishlist he has yet to fulfill.
This isn’t where we started. The church was planted as a hospital. Jesus came for the sick, who knew they desperately needed a doctor. We are at our global BEST when we look like an ICU (as in, “I see you” to the diversely beautiful faces who fill our cities).
Please hear me. This isn’t a scapegoating or shaming call over the church or Christians. Far from it. This isn’t a “church” problem. It’s a heart problem for all of humanity.
I fail to look and love like Christ. I fall short. And God is so full of mercy for me.
That said, I also burn in my inner being to be conformed to the image of Christ. I am eager to repent where I’m missing it. And I am longing to walk in close-knit community of brothers and sisters who desire the same. I am blessed beyond measure to be surrounded by many of them in my home church and the larger Church of my city.
If you see YOU in any of this, join me.
Go low in repentance.
Allow your heart to burn for a purer faith.
Fix your eyes not on the noise around you, but the God within you, remembering we become like what we behold.
Embrace the sword of the Spirit as a weapon against our enemy and a surgeon’s scalpel to our fellow man, that all would be healed.
Be your imperfect best, at the feet of Jesus.
Christian, may we look and love like Christ.
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