Yesterday, I wrote about how we Christians should be in agreement with those who don't believe in Jesus that many times Christians (correction, all the time) are hypocritical.
That being said, let's be realistic about one thing. The people criticizing Christianity for its hypocrites have also likely never read the Bible. If they had, they would realize the truth that we all have fallen short of God's standard (Jesus for those who didn't read yesterday's post).
Instead of getting defensive, I suggested yesterday that we need to be in agreement. Christians are hypocrites. Even our best actions can't close the gap between us and Jehovah (God for those of you new to the blog). Jesus is what is required to do that.
Now, keeping in mind that people who don't believe in Jesus have likely never read the Bible, or at least the great majority of it, we need to counter their belief that Christians are hypocrites by living a lifestyle that defuses those claims.
Romans 12 is a great study on how this works. The Apostile Paul, who wrote Romans, starts out by telling us to let God transform our way of thinking, and acting. Then, Paul gives us some easy examples of what this "alternative lifestyle" looks like.
He tells us to not pretend that we love people, which is what a lot of Christians in America are accused of doing. Instead, he says we should REALLY love them.
Hate the stuff in this world that is wrong and cling to what is right. Human trafficking, poverty, disease, abuse, murder, illiteracy, homelessness, etc. This is another area where the Church in America has taken a big hit. For too long, we have turned a blind eye while the world has suffered. We've ignored the poor, the widowed and the orphaned. And, I think it's because we forgot how to care for them. Over time, the Church stopped teaching believers to not just hate the wrongs, but then to do something about them.
Verse 11 is especially pointed at the American Church today, because we have grown lazy in our relationship with God. We've been conditioned over the past 50 years that the spiritual care of our neighbors is the hired pastor, and not our own duty. And, our church services have gradually become dull, boring and indifferent. All of which violate the commands of this verse.
The rest of the chapter fills in a lot more of this discussion, and you seriously need to read it rather than wait for some blogger to write about it. Romans 12 is truely an application chapter.
But, before we leave our discussion on the Christian hypocrite, Romans 12 gives us a couple of words of advice to help diffuse the hypocrite claim. Doing these two things will truely set you apart from the crowd, and your non-believing friends will take notice, and want to know what's inside of you.
- Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.
- And, Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
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