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ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN FRAUD?
November 4, 2016

Let's see a show of hands here - how many of you reading this
(who are Christians) have done one of the following today:
judged another person, looked upon another with disdain (or
even worse, disgust), or just flat out been sickened by the
actions of someone? If you're like me, you're probably raising
your hand. In today's post, Joey takes a stab at why he thinks
the church has gotten so bad at at one of our prime directives
- to love others.

Are you a Christian fraud? The question is actually not if you
are a fake, but rather, how often? Unless you love perfectly,
you are at least sometimes a fraud, a playfake, a wanna-be; you
get the picture. I mean, it doesn’t get any clearer than 1
Corinthians 13:1 when Paul says,

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have
love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

We can’t be perfect at loving, but if we consistently do things
without love, our faith is worthless and as fake as the
healthiness of Diet Coke.

When’s the last time you saw the cheaters, prostitutes and
druggies all flock to the Christians for hang-out time? Jesus
loved perfectly and this is what happened to Him. We have to
admit, as a church, that we are doing something wrong. Let’s
just cut to the chase: Some of us just flat out suck at it.
Why don’t you take the following test and see how well you
love? Maybe even use this at your next community/small group
discussion.

When you see a single teenage mother, do you think:

Man how irresponsible. Why couldn’t she have just kept her
pants on?

Wow, that’s awesome that she decided to bring that kid into
the world. I sure hope she has the support that she needs
and that she has or will find Jesus’ grace to permeate
through her whole life.

When you see a drunken redneck at the bar, do you think:

Loser.

Does your heart bleed for someone that truly thinks that
alcohol is the answer he needs?

When you hear about the sexual predator that violated the trust
of a precious child, are you:

Sickened by the repulsive predator?

Sickened by the disastrous effects this will have on the
victim AND saddened by how destructive sexual perversion
was on the predator?

When you saw Miley Cyrus twerk for the first time, did:

Your heart break with sadness?

You fill with rage and anger of how bad an example she was
to your daughter(s)?

How’d you do? I KNOW how many of you answered because I’m
friends with a lot of Christians that would not answer these
questions too favorably.

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If we follow Jesus, the one that showed love in such a radical
way, how’d the church get so horrible at loving?

Check this out: Luke 7:36-47

You didn’t read it, did you? Lazy, lazy lazy, eh?

Jesus had to ask this Pharisee, Peter, if he even saw this
woman? In other words, “This is a real person, dumbass” (not
Jesus’ exact words, but maybe his thoughts).

Do you forget that “people” are real people with real
backgrounds, hardships and souls?

All Peter could think about was whether or not some one’s life
looked good. Her sin was way more visible, appeared way more
shameful and thus, she’s way worse of a person. But Jesus is a
game-changer. When we look at Him and His perfection, the rest
of us are on the same playing field. Do you constantly compare
yourself to others, putting yourself on a higher level of
righteousness?

When our minds are more consumed with Jesus than anything else,
instead of first dwelling on other people’s lives and how
sinful they are, we’d think more along the lines of how
thankful they would be if they accepted Jesus’ grace.

Can people see this true gospel message in how you love them?
Or are they more aware of the things they do that you
disapprove of? We all have to get better at this.

Here are a handful of suggestions for you to think about and
ponder:

Stop everything and learn how to love. Its that important.

Make love a priority over evangelism. Your evangelism will
be more effective.

Take risks to love unbelievers, even when it might be
offensive to other Christians.

Have patience with other Christians.

Rethink ministries/studies that are so focused on spiritual
gifts that they don’t have time to love.

Pray for an understanding of God’s love and for you to be a
reflection of it.

Jesus spoke truth perfectly and also loved perfectly. Both are
equally important and one is incomplete without the other. If
you focus on love and downplay truth, that’s not a loving thing
to do. If you focus on truth but aren’t loving, people may be
hearing you but they aren’t listening. You are also ignoring
some of the most profound truth in the Bible (teachings about
love). Perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). Your truth
is worthless without love. Go ahead and clang that annoying
cymbal. No one is listening.

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