Saturday, December 5, 2009

An offensive Gospel

Mohandas Ghandi once said of Christianity, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Most people have a positive view of the teachings of Jesus- “Love, forgiveness, hope, giving, real faith.” But they have a real problem with Christians. What is so offensive about Christians?
Christians are offensive in one of two ways- in a negative way as judgmental and hypocritical, or in a positive way because their lives are so filled with the message of the Gospel that it makes people sick.

First, I'll address the negative. Christians, especially in our culture, are known for their hypocrisy and arrogance. If you think of the typical church, its probably filled with white, upper-class people who go to church to feel good about themselves. What is lacking is love- love for one another and love for the lost.

A real relationship with God procreates into a love that seeps out of us in everything we do. We should first be known by our love. Yet, where this starts is living in the reality that Jesus has called us to life of prayer and devotion to him. If we make this the central pillar of our lives, we are filled with love for everyone around us.

So if Christians want others to look at them in a more positive light, they should first look within and ask if the message and salvation of Jesus Christ is real in their life.

Now for the second kind of offensiveness- a positive one. I firmly believe that in some situations, the Gospel, in its purest form, is offensive.

Look at Jesus Christ- he offended a lot of people- so much so that they killed him. If we are living out the Gospel, daily loving others with a real heart, people will be offended.
I am certainly not advocating that Christians make signs, stand on a street corner, and yell at people that they are sinners destined for hell. But I am saying we need to tell the truth in love.
John 4:23 says, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

We must have both truth and love in our message to people. This may be offensive to people simply because they are resisting, trying to shut themselves off from the truth of the Gospel, so much that they will be offended.
Christians are called to live the message of Jesus Christ- we must be known for our love, but also equally so for the truth.

1 comment:

  1. Stephen,
    Great post. Your comments reminded me of something I recently read in my devotions. John 6:60-62 - "On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?"

    It's very clear that there's no "diet" version of the Christianity that Jesus preached. Jesus taught disciples that they must take up their cross daily, not every Sunday for 2 hours. Biblical Christianity should be offensive (in a positive way, of course). It should be offensive in the way that it contradicts the sick values and lifestyles of the world. Love, hope, peace must prevail.

    Sometimes I wish some Christians would be offended a little more by what Jesus said. At least there would be no lukewarm Christians in the pews.

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