Hypocrites in the Church...

Suggested Reading: Matthew 7:13-23

I have had a number of discussions with people about why they no longer believe in God. I am not talking about life-long atheists. I am talking about people who once identified themselves as Christians but now do not believe in God at all. All of those conversations have had basically one thing in common. While these former Christians mention problems with children dying or starvation or too many people suffering, causing them to question God's existence, the biggest hurtle many of these people face is the behavior of Christians.

These people will talk about the fact that Christians pick each other apart, that they are hypocritical, that they don't follow their own standards. They will talk about the fact that many Christians are petty, cruel and hateful. And then they will follow those observations with the conclusion that if Jesus was really God then Christians would live like it. Do you know how I have to respond to these people? I tell them, "You're right. Most people who say  they are Christians behave exactly like you said they do."

The problem that I have with people turning away from God because of the behavior of Christians is not because they are wrong about Christian behavior. In most cases, I think our critics are right. The problem is that Jesus warned us that a large number of people who claimed to follow him would not really be his disciples at all! 

In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus said,  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord! ’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name? ’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’" (HCSB).  Just a few verses earlier in verse 13-14, Jesus said,  "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (NIV).

Jesus warned us that many, if not the majority, of people who claimed to follow him would not really be his disciples. Jesus warned us that few would follow the narrow path that leads to life because it is hard to find. But somehow, we are surprised when large numbers of people who claim to be Christians behave very badly?

We have no way of knowing whether the people around us who claim to be Christians truly are, although Jesus did tell us that you could know a tree by its fruit. But ultimately, it is not our job to sort out the "real" Christians from the "fake" ones. Our job is to follow Jesus.  Ultimately, each and every person is accountable to God alone, not to us. We are responsible for taking up our cross daily and following him, not for pointing out when someone else fails to live up to a certain standard.

As you encounter hypocrites in the church - and you will - keep your eyes on Jesus. Focusing on other people will only distract you. Take up your own cross and follow Jesus. Let Jesus worry about the fakes.

Fishing in an Empty Pond

Suggested Reading: Matthew 4:18-25

One of the things about Stargate SG-1 that always entertained me was the fact that the show never took itself too seriously. That tone was set by a leading character, Jack O'Neill, who loved to go fishing so much that he had a fishing pond installed on his property behind his rustic log cabin home. But because he enjoyed fishing more than he actually enjoyed catching fish, he never had any fish put into the pond. Jack would simply sit there in his lawn chair, with an ice chest full of cold drinks, watching the water and casting his line out every once in a while. I don't think he even used any bait.

When Jesus called the first disciples, he said, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19, NIV). That call extends to all of us who have decided to follow Jesus, but sometimes I think we enjoy fishing for men the way Jack O'Neill enjoyed fishing. We like talking about it. We enjoy feeling like we're fishing. We may even enjoy going through the motions just like Jack enjoyed casting out his line. But at the end of the day, we're more interested in fishing for people than in catching people. You can tell because, like Jack, we don't actually go where the fish are. We stay where we are comfortable, where we can feel like we're fishing, where we might catch something if the fish come to us, but we aren't willing to leave our areas of comfort to get to where the fish actually are. 

Jesus was known as a friend of sinners because he went where the sinners were. Jesus went into the homes of the tax collectors and ate with the prostitutes. He hung out with sinners so much that the religious leaders labeled him a drunkard and a glutton (Mathew 11:19). He wasn't. But Jesus didn't fear being labelled by people who claimed to care about others but only actually pushed them away from the kingdom of God (Mathew 23:13-15). Jesus hung out with sinners because he remembered it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick (Mathew 9:12, NIV).

If we want to get serious about fishing for people, we must be willing to go where the fish are. We must be willing to spend time with sinners and hang out with people who don't act like good Christians. And we must be willing to love them the same way Jesus did, accepting them and caring for them without ever condoning or glossing over their sin.

Are we fishing for people in order to catch something or are we just going through the motions? Instead of sitting by an empty pond, casting out lines in vain, let's go where the fish are. Who knows? We might actually catch someone.