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Without fail, I frequently seem to hear a story about how a Christian chewed someone out for either not believing in creation, not believing in God, or a myriad of other reasons. This breaks my heart. This flies in the face of how Jesus approached others when He physically walked the earth.
I think it’s time for Christian’s everywhere to realize something about themselves, we’re hypocrites. With our words we claim to follow Christ, but our actions don’t always represent that. We don’t have it all figured out. We aren’t perfect and we never will be.
The apostle Paul understood this when he claimed to be the sinner of all sinners. Yes, he did live a life before Christ where he persecuted those who claimed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, but then he met God and went on to become the most famous missionary of Christianity. Yet, he makes that claim about his sins. He’s right. He is the chief sinner among sinners, and so are you and I. In the eyes of a perfect God, we are out-of-control children throwing a temper tantrum in the mud. If we lose sight of that, we are in danger of forgetting how to talk about our faith with others.
If we are dirty sinners and the only way to be cleansed is to humbly offer ourselves to God as his slave, how should we talk to someone else about this God? How should we talk to someone else about ourselves? How should we talk to someone else about them?
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” - Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Phillippi.
I’m a horrible sinner.
But, I’m saved by the grace of God.
It’s NOTHING I did.
Sometimes I forget that.
Because, I’m a hypocrite.
I think it’s time for Christian’s everywhere to realize something about themselves, we’re hypocrites. With our words we claim to follow Christ, but our actions don’t always represent that. We don’t have it all figured out. We aren’t perfect and we never will be.
The apostle Paul understood this when he claimed to be the sinner of all sinners. Yes, he did live a life before Christ where he persecuted those who claimed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, but then he met God and went on to become the most famous missionary of Christianity. Yet, he makes that claim about his sins. He’s right. He is the chief sinner among sinners, and so are you and I. In the eyes of a perfect God, we are out-of-control children throwing a temper tantrum in the mud. If we lose sight of that, we are in danger of forgetting how to talk about our faith with others.
If we are dirty sinners and the only way to be cleansed is to humbly offer ourselves to God as his slave, how should we talk to someone else about this God? How should we talk to someone else about ourselves? How should we talk to someone else about them?
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” - Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Phillippi.
I’m a horrible sinner.
But, I’m saved by the grace of God.
It’s NOTHING I did.
Sometimes I forget that.
Because, I’m a hypocrite.
Amen, I am right there with you. Thankfully, we have the word of God to set us right and remind us as often as we are willing to look to it!
ReplyDeleteThe verse of you chose about being humble is one of my favorites...when we do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, that is when we are able to meet people where they are at and talk to them about our Creator. And they are very often willing to listen!
Thanks, Lauren! I totally agree with your thoughts about that verse. I have been learning today about the importance of even responding to injustice\false teaching with that kind of humility and love for the other person. Difficult, and yet that's how Christ responds to us everyday. AMAZING!
ReplyDelete