I read a post from a Christian the other day that bugs me so much I've gotta address it. It's a post from the Rapture Ready website called "An Artist's Testimony or Agenda?" And it's basically a Christian calling a newly-born-again celebrity a "false convert."
And the "proof" that this Christian uses to support their case are things like the celebrity said she wasn't planning on changing her goth looks, that she didn't burn her witchcraft books but merely threw them out, that she's "BFF's" with a satanist, that she thinks skulls are beautiful, that she recently released a song with some nasty lyrics (and yes, I agree they're nasty), and that she said she refuses to talk about her faith on her social media accounts anymore, etc.
And because of things like these, this Christian "judge" (named Candy) declares the celebrity guilty - a "false convert" and possibly one of the "Satanists/Luciferians" who are "God-haters who use every chance they get to mock our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, even to the point of using 'Trojan Horse assimilation' into the church."
But do you know what I think?
I think it's possible that maybe, just maybe, this celebrity is not a false convert at all, not a devil in Christian's clothing.
Maybe... she's just a baby Christian!
Maybe she's just a brand-new believer who is just starting out on the journey of faith and who needs time to make changes and to grow in spiritual wisdom and maturity.
But how in the world can a new believer do that when fellow Christians show her no grace or compassion or encouragement... and when - instead of supporting her and helping her grow in the faith - they attack her and denounce her because she hasn't yet learned all the things mature Christians know or made all the changes they think she should make or found the few verses in the whole Bible about burning occultic things, etc.?
No wonder she doesn't want to talk publicly about her faith anymore!
I wouldn't want to talk about my faith either if the very people who should be celebrating with me, encouraging me, and helping me were instead tearing me down, accusing me of lying about my faith, calling me a Satanist in disguise, and criticizing me in order to elevate themselves, bragging about their self-proclaimed "righteous judgment" and "gift of discernment" and "accurate [judgments] through the leading and prompting of God's Holy Spirit."
Not very sweet, is it?
I'm gonna turn Candy's question back on herself: "Is this behavior congruent with someone who is truly born again in the Lord Jesus Christ?"
[Candy knows that others will call her out for her attack on this baby Christian, and so she made a preemptive strike against those who do so: "Oftentimes, when we, as True Bible Believers, respond in such a way (with righteous judgment as we are instructed to do in the Bible), the world and even CINOs (Christians in Name Only) will quickly condemn and dismiss us by labeling us as self-righteous, judgmental, legalistic, and even unloving!"
Do you see what she's cleverly doing there? She's pre-defining anyone who criticizes her as an unbeliever or fake Christian. She is a "True Bible Believer [with] righteous judgment," and so anyone who disagrees with her isn't. This allows her to say whatever she wants while "justifiably" dismissing any criticisms from other people, even fellow Christians.
What this tells me is that she knows very well that her attitude is "self-righteous, judgmental, legalistic, and even unloving," and so she has to find a way to defend herself, to deny it, to make everyone else the problem instead of her. It's manipulation and gaslighting.]
Candy goes on to say "And until I see real, true, genuine, saving faith-belief and change in them, long term, by the way, and with respect toward Jesus Christ, I’m not going to fall for whatever they’re trying to peddle, swindle, sell, assimilate, acclimate, or do!"
So it's "guilty until proven innocent," huh?
But I wonder... When it comes to "self-righteous, judgmental, legalistic, and even unloving" Christians who search for sins in others, judge others, tear others down (especially publicly), and who don't have a kind word to say about even a brand-new believer, would they ever think another Christian is good enough? Would they ever think others have "proven" their faith enough to be trusted, to be let into the fold?
Or will they always be looking for something to condemn and shame others for, always ungraciously nitpicking on other's shortcomings and faults and sins, always uncompassionately stepping on others to get to the top of the spiritual heap? Will they always be like the jealous, self-righteous brother of the prodigal son who got all upset that the Father welcomes home such "terrible" sinners with open arms and a party, instead of celebrating with them?
It's sad.
"Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgement on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you - who are you to judge your neighbor?" (James 4:11-12)
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." (Phil. 2:1-3)
Unless I'm wrong, the new-Christian celebrity is Kat Von D. And it's sad because she herself (and her non-believing husband) has noticed and been hurt by the criticisms and hatred coming from Christians.
[See Kat Von D asks Christians to pray for her husband instead of criticizing: It "turns people off" and "I'm not ashamed": Renowned Tattoo Artist Kat Von D Explains Baptism, Talks About Her Church.
In the second one, Kat says she's not going to talk much about her faith right now not because she's trying to hide her faith (as Candy accuses her of doing), but because it's too new and she doesn't feel equipped yet to be the poster child for Christianity. She wants time to "grow in her relationship with the Lord without being weighed down by the burden of the public eye." (Can you blame her!?!)
I think that's perfectly reasonable to do - to focus on drawing nearer to the Lord before opening herself up to the public, to grow in the faith, in wisdom, and in biblical knowledge before speaking too much about things that are brand-new to her, things she knows little about right now.
Maybe some older Christians could learn from Kat, to be reminded of the need to focus more on drawing near to the Lord and growing more and more like Him before publicly shooting off their mouths about brand-new Christians or about other people's faith/lives that they personally know little about.]
What a horrible way to start a journey of faith, a time that should be celebrated, especially after she humbly shared a video of her baptism for all to see. How vulnerable, trusting, and hopeful! (She's got more guts than I do.) And how sad that instead of celebrating with her, Christians attack her.
And what a horrible experience for the non-believing husband! How could he ever be attracted to Jesus if that's how Jesus-followers act?
Seriously, shame on those who attack baby Christians in Jesus's name!
[Christians who have a heart should do as Kat asks: Say a prayer for her and her husband. Pray that God guides/grows her in the faith in spite of the hate, that He puts good Christians in their path to help them experience the love and truth and compassion of Jesus, and that He protects them from the attacks of fellow Christians as well as spiritual enemies (of which there will be many since she is coming out of the occult).]
One of the things Candy judges Kat for is her goth appearance.
It's easy, isn't it, for those of us whose appearance isn't tied to our career and financial/social world to judge those whose appearance is. It's easy for us to criticize them for how quickly (or not quickly) they change their looks after becoming a Christian... because we're not in their shoes. We're not the ones whose change in looks will probably affect all other parts of our lives too.
It's going to take time for Kat to feel convicted enough to change her public image, especially when it's tied to her business, her financial world, her social world. Give her time. She's going to have a lot of things to untangle, change, sort out, or overcome on her faith journey, from appearance to friends to career to what she thinks is beautiful, etc. So give her time. Have some grace for her. She's got a long - and probably difficult - journey ahead of her, and she's going to need all the support she can get.
Reach out to her and lift her up, instead of pushing her down.
And I just have to ask those of us who judge other Christians for their appearance or for other things on the outside:
Since when is faith more about what's on the outside than on the inside anyway? And just because an older Christian has a cleaner outside than a goth baby Christian, does it really mean the older Christian is more godly or more pleasing and acceptable to God than the baby Christian? Does a clean outside equal a clean inside? Does a messy outside equal a messy inside? Which should come first: cleaning up our hearts or our appearance?
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." (Matthew 23:25-28, which isn't written to or about new believers but to those who are well educated in the law and in spiritual matters, to those who are self-inflated, self-righteous, and proud of their appealing outsides but who judge/treat others harshly and unfairly, who consider themselves better than everyone else.)
And since when has haughty, self-righteous, critical judgment replaced grace, compassion, kindness, and gentleness in the Church?
Gal. 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control..."
Of course, none of us can know for sure right off the bat whether someone really is or is not a true believer. Time will tell. (Heck, we can't even know for sure if older believers who pride themselves on their self-proclaimed "accurate, God-given, spiritual discernment" are true believers ... or if they're really just long-term wolves in sheep's clothing, using long-term 'Trojan Horse assimilation' to get into the church. No one knows for sure. I'm just saying.)
Maybe the Christian judge does indeed have accurate, God-gifted, spiritual discernment about this. Who am I to know? Only time will tell. But even if she's right, I still say she's going about it all wrong, with a critical, prideful, ungracious attitude that will do more harm than good.
Phil. 4:5: "Let your gentleness be evident to all..."
Eph. 4:2,15,29: "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love... speaking the truth in love ... Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
I saw no gentleness, no building up, no help, no love in the rant against Kat. Only self-righteous judgment.
And yet love is supposed to be the hallmark of Christians.
John 13:34-35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
1 John 4:7-8,11-12: "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love... Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."
1 Cor. 13:1-3: "If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a changing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Mark 12:31: "... Love your neighbor as yourself ..."
And what is love?
1 Corinthians 13:4-8: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
I saw none of this in the attack on Kat, a brand-new baby Christian.
Yes, there is a time to gently call out the sins, errors, and problems in other believers (such as, let's say, when another believer takes it upon themselves to publicly attack a baby Christian in the name of Jesus and Christianity, poorly representing the Church).
But there's also a time for grace, for patience, for compassion, for encouraging and uplifting others - such as when someone turns to the Lord for the first time, especially when they're coming from a dark past.
What a time to celebrate and rejoice!
"... there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10)
And until and unless there is solid evidence to the contrary, shouldn't we give those who claim they're new believers the benefit of the doubt? Shouldn't we come alongside them, encourage them, and help them grow in the faith and in biblical knowledge - until they prove us wrong? Shouldn't we give them time before we condemn them and call them false? Shouldn't we let Jesus be the Judge and let the Holy Spirit do the convicting and let God be the One to patiently mold the baby Christian into His image over time (as He's done with all of us), as we just focus on doing our best to lovingly and gently help each other along the way?
To be honest, maybe one of the reasons I'm so sensitive about this issue is because I've been one of the high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou judges before, as a young, enthusiastic Christian who really wanted to do right. I remember judging and condemning certain celebrity Christians who said a bad word or who got divorced, convinced they couldn't possibly be true Christians. I remember mentally noting how well everyone else was doing in the faith, nitpicking their faults and sins, feeling better about myself when I looked, talked, and behaved better than them, as if it earned me more brownie points with God.
It's not that I wanted to be critical; it's just that I had a perfectionistic streak (first-born overachiever with self-esteem issues I was unaware of at the time) and I really wanted to please God, to be the best Christian I could be. And that meant high standards I held myself to, as well as everyone else, carefully evaluating everything said and done (which I later learned is exhausting, discouraging, and self-defeating).
At the time (though I didn't realize it), I was about proving myself and doing my best to try to earn God's love because I hadn't yet learned to simply accept it for the free gift it is. I hadn't yet learned that it's okay to be human and broken, that God knows we're all human and broken, and that He loves us anyway, even as the messes we are.
Learning to admit my brokenness and then to accept His free gifts of love and grace in spite of my brokenness would be a huge step in my walk of faith. (A free gift that can be earned is no longer a free gift. In fact, trying to earn a free gift is insulting to the gift-giver. And so the only way to get God's free gifts of love, grace, forgiveness, eternal life is to simply and humbly accept them in gratitude. He doesn't need anything we can give Him in return; He just wants us.)
And I didn't learn this until later in life, not until after life beat me down over and over again, teaching me that I wasn't as capable, as polished, as self-sufficient, as high-and-mighty, or as good as I thought I was. (And if I wasn't as good as I thought I was, then others weren't as bad as I thought they were either.) Learning to embrace God's unearnable love, even being the mess that I am, allowed me not only to love God more, but it allowed me to learn to love others more too, even as the messes they are.
And now, on the other side of that, I have very little condemnation towards those who stumble on the journey of faith or who don't have it all together. I have a whole lot more grace, compassion, patience, and love for them now and really want to lift them up and help them on their journey, especially broken, hurting, sinful people.
Because I'm one of them. I know how it feels. I know how hard the journey is. And I want the best for them, for their futures, for their hearts - because I know how much life hurts.
And maybe that's why I react so strongly to the holier-than-thou-ers who harshly criticize those who struggle, fail, or fall below our "perfect standards." I've been on both sides. I know how it feels. And my heart aches for those whose hearts ache.
And at this point in my life, if I had to pick, I'd stand not by the holier-than-thou-ers. But I'd stand by the broken, hurting, struggling, beaten-down sinner any day - because that's who Jesus stands by too - not to condone their sin, but to help lift them out of it.
Mark 2:17: “Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners ..."
Psalm 34:18: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
Of course, in our compassion for sinners, we must never compromise on what God's Word says about sin. While loving the sinner, we must never be soft on sin.
After all, our sin cost Jesus His life.
Jesus was never soft on sin or on sinners who were proud of their sin, who clung to their sins and their pride, but He was gentle and compassionate with those who knew they were sinners who needed Him. He sought them out. He drew them to Him with love.
So let's do the same. Let's love the sinner while being firm on sin. Let's draw them to Jesus with love and compassion and gentleness, instead of bashing them over the head with God's Word or with the judgment that belongs only to Him.
[For a much better, more supportive article about celebrities coming to Jesus - one that is cautiously optimistic and gives them the benefit of the doubt, instead of being skeptical and looking for reasons to tear them down - see "Why are so many celebrities suddenly becoming Christians?" I don't know who Daddy Yankee is, but I'm celebrating his decision to turn to Christ too. Click here to see his bold announcement about it at the end of one of his concerts. You can just feel the emotion in his voice, and it's a beautiful, touching thing! God bless him! (That article didn't mention Rob Schneider turning to Christ recently, but let's celebrate him too!)]
The journey of faith is a difficult one, and even more so for those in the public eye... and even more so if they're coming from a dark, occultic past... and EVEN MORE SO if fellow Christians attack, shame, mock, or condemn them instead of encouraging them.
The journey of faith is a difficult one, and we need all the help we can get. So let's lift each other up instead of beating each other down.
If God has been so gracious, compassionate, forgiving, and patient with each of us, shouldn't we be that way with each other too?
You know, I wonder if the high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou Christian judges will ever stop their critical, judgmental attacks long enough to consider that maybe, just maybe, if a baby Christian like Kat does stumble badly or make a mess of her life/testimony, it won't be because she wasn't a true believer... but it'll be because she just couldn't bear up under the hate from other Christians who treated her so badly, who attacked her instead of encouraged her, who pushed her down instead of helped her up, and who publicly condemned everything about her before she even had a chance to grow in the faith. (Shameful!)
When we can't turn to other believers for help on our difficult journeys of faith, who can we turn to? When our own family won't support or encourage us, who will?
My heart goes out to this new baby Christian, to Kat. And to her, I say...
Hang in there, girl! Not all of us are critical of you. Plenty of us are welcoming you with open arms, are rejoicing over your newfound faith, are optimistic about the journey ahead of you, and are praying for the best for you.
So surround yourself with loving, gentle, humble, wise, biblical believers who will support you and help you on your way - and forget what the high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou-ers say. They're not speaking in the spirit of Jesus, and so they're not worth paying attention to. Just keep your eyes on Christ, on pleasing Him, and don't worry about the opinions of judgmental, self-righteous people. Keep yourself immersed in God's Word and in prayer, and He will help you grow in the faith and make the changes He wants you to make as time goes on. God bless you and your family as you start your walk with the Lord.
Here's me celebrating with you and sending you a virtual high-five and hug ...
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Here's a great song for all the broken people; hope for all the outcasts, the rebels, the searchers:
Living Water by Anne Wilson
And I just have to say, I LOVE the comment from ngoc4312:
"Greatest man in history, had no servants, yet they called him Master. Had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today🙏. His name is Jesus.🧡"
This reminds me of another quote I love, from Napoleon Bonaparte:
"I know men, and I tell you Jesus Christ was not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and gods of other religions. This resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men will die for Him."
Would you? Do you know Him well enough - what He did for you - that you would die for Him too?
Secret Ambition by Michael W. Smith
Sweetly Broken by Jeremy Riddle
Oh, What Love by The City Harmonic
Fearless by DC Talk
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For a few posts I wrote which echo some things from this one, see "'Lonely' by Justin Bieber" and "Pray for Kanye and Kim" and "Modern-day Pharisees".
But instead of answering their question about if she should be stoned, Jesus writes on the ground and says “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And one by one, all the accusers leave. (I think it’s interesting that the older ones left first. I think as we age, if we've gone through enough of our own trials, heartaches, and sinful struggles, we lose some of that dogmatic, judgmental, self-righteousness that we might have had when we were young. Because we learned that we are human and that we fail and fall and break and stumble just like everyone else, and this helps us have compassion on others who are human too.)
I think there are two very important lessons in this account:
A. Jesus was more disturbed by the unforgiving, self-righteous attitudes of the “spiritual elite” than He was by the guilty woman. He cared more about protecting her than about impressing the religious snobs. And this should be sobering to those of us who are more bothered by what everyone else is doing wrong than by what we're doing wrong, to those of us who are so eager to accept the forgiveness, compassion, grace, mercy that we don’t deserve, but so unwilling to give it to others who need it too.
[Did you ever wonder why Jesus wrote on the ground instead of just saying what He wanted to say like He did every other time? I think it was an incredible act of mercy and compassion for the woman. If the hateful, condemning, judgmental people wanted to see what Jesus said, they had to shift their focus off of the trembling, exposed, completely-ashamed woman and look to the ground instead. Not only did this spare the woman from their condemning gaze, but they had to lower their heads, lower their eyes, which is the opposite of what prideful, arrogant, self-righteous people do. And maybe, along with whatever Jesus wrote on the ground, it was the physical act of mimicking a humble posture, of looking away from the sin of another person, of lowering their heads and their eyes, that made them more inclined to look within themselves at their own sins, at their own bad heart attitudes. They realized that in the eyes of God, they were no better than the adulterous woman, no less sinful, naked, exposed, or guilty than her. And they felt shame, the same kind of shame they were heaping on her. In the eyes of God, she was them, and they were her. And so they dropped their rocks and left. What a brilliant act of mercy and compassion and conviction! (But would we except anything less from Jesus!)]
B. And Jesus wasn’t nearly as concerned with where the woman was coming from, because He was much too concerned with where she was going. “‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’” (John 8:11). He didn't care about her past as much as He did her future.
Jesus cares much more about where we're going than where we've been. He cares more about the potential for us to get our life right than He does about what we did wrong. He cares more about forgiving our sins than condemning us for them.
Maybe religious snobs want to pour shame on others for what they've done wrong, rubbing their noses in it, condemning them for it.
But not Jesus. Jesus wants to pour on His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness. He wants to free us from shame, not find more things to shame us about.
The religious snobs wanted to give the woman death, but Jesus wanted to give her life. And so instead of encouraging the throwing of stones, He stopped them.
Oh, that we were more like Jesus!
And so once again, I ask this question to all the high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou-ers who nitpick and shame the sins and shortcomings of other people, who push others down instead of helping them up, who use their tongue to hurt instead of heal: "Is your behavior congruent with someone who is truly born again in the Lord Jesus Christ?"
2. And the second part I want to share is a section (condensed) that I call "The Smoker":
There’s an experiment that I’ve been wanting to try at church. Daydream with me a moment how this would play out:
Pretend that I get up in front of a church full of Christians and say, “What’s going on with Christians nowadays? We are failing to show Christ’s love to others, to extend grace to those who are different than us. We're gossipy, critical, and judgmental towards each other. We're more concerned with how others are living than with how we're living, seeing the speck in their eye instead of the plank in ours. We fail to do the good we know we should do. Our relationships are falling apart because we're putting our happiness first. We use people. We slander people. We gossip. We've got wrong priorities. We don't keep our promises. We compromise the Truth to please others. We barely even know what the Bible really says anymore because we don't immerse ourselves in it or live it out. We seek temporary pleasures instead of heavenly ones. We're living lukewarm, lazy, self-serving lives. And this shit has got to stop!”
Now, what do you think would be going through most people’s minds at that point? What do you think would be the topic of conversation later when they all got together to discuss what I said?
Come on, admit it ... you know exactly what they would think because it’s the same thing you thought: “I can’t believe she just said ‘shit’ in church!”
I think there would be more focus on that four-letter word than on the discouraging condition of the average Christian life nowadays. There'd be more Christians finger-pointing at me, shaking their heads in disapproval for that one word, than there'd be those who let their hearts be convicted by their sins and shortcomings.
After all, if we focus on what others are doing wrong, it’s easier to ignore what we're doing wrong, isn't it? (And as a bonus, we get to look “righteous and holy” for noticing other people's sins and shortcomings, and "godly and bold" for pointing them out.)
And sadly, it’s easier to judge others for their outside things that we don't approve of - like the way they talk or dress or eat or drink - than it is to see past their outsides into their hearts, to notice their pains, to hear their cries, to lift them up, to shoulder their burdens, to forgive their shortcomings, to give them grace, to really listen to them and know them.
No. It's easier just to judge, to keep our distance and shake our heads and "tsk-tsk" in disapproval, seeing the worst in them so that we can feel better about ourselves.
Oh, how we forget that the only One with the right to judge is Jesus, and that even He doesn't want to condemn us! That He looks past our outsides to our insides, to see the needs and cries of our hearts, to heal us and not shame us!
“For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)
Oh, that we were more like Jesus!
Let’s not condemn others for their messy outsides while ignoring their insides or act like we're better than them because our outsides are cleaner, shinier, and more polished than theirs. Let’s regularly search our hearts to get ourselves right with God: our motives, our priorities, our heart attitudes, our views of God and others and ourselves. Let’s care about other people in spite of their outsides, about their pain, their struggles, their fears, their needs, their hearts. Let’s live Christ to them, reaching out to them with the grace, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and unconditional love that Christ so lavishly pours out on us all. Let’s put our arms around others, lift them up, and help them on their messy journeys through life... because someday we're gonna need someone to do that for us too.
Could you imagine what the world would look like - or your own family, neighborhood, or church - if all of us Christians did this?
I will always remember a lesson that my mom shared once about what happens when we judge someone based on the outside instead of being more concerned with the inside.
At the time, she was our youth leader (basically, the youth pastor). And one day before youth group, one of the teens who just started attending was smoking outside the youth building. And my mom went out to confront him. She scolded him and told him that he couldn't be here if he was going to smoke. She made it more about what he did than about who he was. She made it more about how we saw him than how God saw him. She made it more about his behavior than his heart, about his flaws than his soul. But she thought she was doing the right thing, the godly thing, confronting him about his shortcomings and ungodly behavior.
He came looking for hope, for help. But what he got was condemnation and humiliation.
And do you know what happened?
He left. And he never came back.
