I find myself pondering the various Christian examples I have just witnessed on a show called Trading Spouses. The premise of the show - two families who are rather opposite, swap mothers for a week and at the end of the week each mom decides how $50,000 is spent on her surrogate family.
I have not been so disgusted with another person professing Christ in such a horrifying way in all my life. I watched one woman remain so rigid in her ways that she couldn't see the person as a created being with any value because she was too busy telling them how badly they "need religion" in their lives. (Those were her words.) She couldn't appreciate the person for who they were at all. Granted, we ought to be urgent in sharing Christ with the lost, but to make it so solemn and joyless - so rigid and lifeless of a thing, is it any wonder the person was less than receptive. Had the woman caught in adultery been brought to one of these women, they wouldn't have asked the crowd "the one with no sin be the first to cast a stone". These women would have been the first to pick up the stones and cast them "to set the example". It was horrifying to watch the opportunities to share the love of Christ, to share with these lost and dying people the reality of their desperate need for Him, to show them service and kindness and unconditional love....these women wasted it on rigid religiousness. They had mannerism the Pharisees would have been proud of.
To think that people who watch that show regularly get that kind of impression about Christian broke my heart too. Much of our culture thinks that winsome and Christianity are antonyms and not synonymous with each other at all. When someone welcomed Christ into their home, He wasn't ready to beat down each family member for their lack of faith. He joined them, taught them, ate with them, met them where they were.
Why do we not follow his example? Yes, the religiously proud hypocrites may need rebuking, but we must first ensure the Lord has shaped us to give that rebuke - that our hearts are humble and not proud. Otherwise, the condescension reveals our own wickedness rather clearly. God help us to maintain humility and see others with His sense of compassion and kindness. May we truly speak the truth in love and not just find reason to speak.
I have not been so disgusted with another person professing Christ in such a horrifying way in all my life. I watched one woman remain so rigid in her ways that she couldn't see the person as a created being with any value because she was too busy telling them how badly they "need religion" in their lives. (Those were her words.) She couldn't appreciate the person for who they were at all. Granted, we ought to be urgent in sharing Christ with the lost, but to make it so solemn and joyless - so rigid and lifeless of a thing, is it any wonder the person was less than receptive. Had the woman caught in adultery been brought to one of these women, they wouldn't have asked the crowd "the one with no sin be the first to cast a stone". These women would have been the first to pick up the stones and cast them "to set the example". It was horrifying to watch the opportunities to share the love of Christ, to share with these lost and dying people the reality of their desperate need for Him, to show them service and kindness and unconditional love....these women wasted it on rigid religiousness. They had mannerism the Pharisees would have been proud of.
To think that people who watch that show regularly get that kind of impression about Christian broke my heart too. Much of our culture thinks that winsome and Christianity are antonyms and not synonymous with each other at all. When someone welcomed Christ into their home, He wasn't ready to beat down each family member for their lack of faith. He joined them, taught them, ate with them, met them where they were.
Why do we not follow his example? Yes, the religiously proud hypocrites may need rebuking, but we must first ensure the Lord has shaped us to give that rebuke - that our hearts are humble and not proud. Otherwise, the condescension reveals our own wickedness rather clearly. God help us to maintain humility and see others with His sense of compassion and kindness. May we truly speak the truth in love and not just find reason to speak.
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