ORGANIZATION OF MANIPULATORS

There are people today who believe the deity of Jesus is a myth designed to keep people morally disciplined in a corrupt world, and that the church itself is just an organization of manipulators aiming to make money off people with broken or damaged consciences. I sense this skepticism was generated by a reaction to religiosity, and a suspiciously tainted church history.

WOLVES IN THE CHURCH

There are wolves in the church body, make no mistake (Matthew 10:16). There are people in the church who don’t take faith seriously, but who think church attendance alone makes them honorable and capable of seeing others’ faults more clearly. These ‘seat warmers’ operate from this illusion of honor, unrighteously judging others for their imperfections. This aligns with the character of those who do not read the Bible, who have not received a heart of flesh (reborn), and who do not pursue life in the spirit. People like this cause faith in Jesus to appear weak; although they, themselves, are merely a misrepresentation; not an actual red flag to the faith itself. After all, are hypocrites the face of Christianity, or are they just caricatures of what a Christ-follower is actually a reflection of? The ability to distinguish between the two is pivotal for those in question over whether or not to return to a congregation based on that one flaw.

HOW THE BIBLE DESCRIBES LOVE

The people who behave as described in the above example clearly missed some of the most important, core biblical teachings in Scripture about following Christ. It would seem they only listened to the parts about how God loves them and forgives them, which is of course true; however, they’ve missed (or perhaps ignored) passages like the one below:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

“Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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.”

Even when we correct others with biblical truth, we are to do so with a brotherly love; not to shame, condemn, or denigrate. No one is better than another, therefore teaching someone must derive from a humble place of desiring to refine another’s faith walk. Humiliation is not the seed that leads to spiritual growth.

UNCHANGED PEOPLE

The fact that there are some hypocrites planting ‘humiliation seeds’ in church doesn’t undermine Christianity. What it does is it exposes unchanged people in the church who have not repented, or who have lost their way, or who have a lack of understanding what the Scriptures clearly teach about how to love.

BOUNDARIES, AND OUR NEED FOR JESUS

Broken, unwilling people are, unsurprisingly, capable of acting out of place. Perhaps, by knowing this, we have our own work to do in forgiving them, and praying for their hearts to be made right in Christ. Concordantly, we can avoid connection with these particular people until they exhibit a level of maturity noticeable through changes to their unbiblical behaviors. Regardless, the presence of hypocrites in the church only reveals the corruption in the heart of man that the Bible talks about, not a corrupt church foundation (John 2:24). In other words, hypocrites tend to remind us that it’s humans that are corrupt and in need of Jesus, which is precisely what the church exists to teach, remind us of, and grow within.

THE HEART OF CHRIST-FOLLOWING

When we are born again, we are given new eyes and new ears; the sight of Christ moving in our lives, the ability to hear the Lord speak to us, as well as a compassionate heart for the rest of those who are still lost.

That’s what it looks like when someone is following Jesus, and not just attending church services. True Christ-followers already know we can’t love others and simultaneously condemn them; we can’t point the censuring finger at them and use the same finger to bring them through the church doors. No one would accept that invitation. And if we think about it a little harder, if the church was founded on self-righteous, arrogant people, it wouldn’t have survived long enough to see another generation, let alone two millenniums!

THEIR FRUIT IS HOW WE KNOW

If the unbeliever’s skepticism about church is really just an emotional reaction to the cold hearts of people who haven’t actually placed their faith in Jesus, then perhaps we need a reminder that there’s a way to tell if any person is a true Christ-follower, or if they just attend church services ritualistically. The way we discern between the two is simple: If someone’s faith is in Jesus and not in something else, there’s going to be fruit in that person’s life, and it’s going to extend far beyond the church walls (Matthew 7:15-20). That’s how we know someone’s a Christ-follower: not merely their church attendance, but by their lifestyle; their faith walk, their prayer life—the way they treat others, and the way they speak and think.

FAITH-FIRST HEART POSTURE

“What comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” Jesus says in Matthew 15:11. What a person does and says comes from their heart. If a person walks in faith, they’re going to sound and look different than others. They stand out because of how they live, think, and operate in a faith-first heart posture. How a person orders their life priorities is very telling: is their eternity-prep set in the background, or at the front?

A CHRIST-FOLLOWER’S IDENTITY

Not everyone in the church actually has faith in Jesus. Many are actually agnostics looking for clarity, answers, and closure to a wound they have, or to a void in their life. Some people aren’t on fire for Jesus, they just want to sing some songs and listen to someone speak on Sunday morning, and they call that “spirituality,” or “organized religion.” Being on fire for Jesus means the fire reaches our personal lives, our work, and our relationships. Let’s put it another way: we should be known first as Christ-followers, and then everything else after that. There are those kinds people in the church, they’re just unfortunately not the majority of folks in the seats.

SHREWD AS SNAKES AND INNOCENT AS DOVES

There’s more than one reason Jesus tells us to be “shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). What if our preacher is a false prophet teaching anti-biblically? What if the people we tend to look up to most are the ones saying one thing and doing another; or, they’re saying one thing, and that one thing doesn’t align with Jesus’s teachings? How can we know if we’re walking into a church full of people who don’t have any light in them for Christ? Their fruit! We have to be alert, and cunning; astute; smart about how we discern people’s behavior and lifestyles. Anyone can claim to be a Christian, but only true Christ-followers live that life in their heart.

TRUE NATURE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD

The Church today is certainly imperfect, but it’s necessary; set apart, purposeful, and God-focused. If there were no Christ-followers in today’s world, there would be no resistance to the wolves! The church leaders today folding under cultural pressure will answer to God on Judgment Day. The people lying about, or swaying from what Scripture teaches will all one day answer to God for fearing people’s disapproval, rather than placing their fear in God’s absolute authority.

AN ONGOING BITTERNESS

And while religious bigotry, arrogance, and pride are all understandable reasons for any person to temporarily leave the church to find forgiveness for the people involved, it is revealing of a person’s true relationship with God and Jesus to stay away and believe, speak, act, and live as though there is no God—or that all churches are the same—as an ongoing bitterness to some immature, hypocritical churchgoers.

ONE COMMON GROUND

Churches are full of broken people in need of a Savior. We all have our moments. We all makes choices at some point or another that we look back on and regret. The reason some of us become someone’s “difficult situation” in church is because we have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 2:23). There is no perfect person; no perfect spouse; and certainly no perfect church. The one thing we have most in common is our collective need for Jesus. We all need faith in God, and we all need faithful church community.

ACCEPTING FORGIVENESS AND BEING FREE

Relationship to God through faith in Jesus is the reason we go to church, not broken consciences. The way we know this is true is that our consciences are made clear when we accept complete forgiveness in Christ. His atonement for our sins is the foundation for our peace; it is the source of our joy in our new, reborn life. For the people who go to church but have not placed faith in Jesus in their heart, there is likely a sore spot in the areas of their lives where unrepentant sin remains. Put it this way: if we still have guilt or shame hiding in us, there is a part of ourselves we have kept the wages for. We still have yet to give it all to Jesus and leave it all at the cross.

IF JESUS’S BLOOD WASN’T ENOUGH

I’ll reiterate: it’s when we don’t accept His atonement that we live as though we still have to pay for our sins’ wages. But Jesus’s blood didn’t just cover a few sins—it covered them ALL. In fact, why even go to church if we still have wages to pay? If Jesus’s blood sacrifice on the cross wasn’t enough, why go to church and learn about the Bible if we still have to do all that work? That would undermine the faith completely. And that’s why it’s amazing what Jesus did. Because it was enough!

REPENT AND LET GO

All we have to do… let me repeat, ALL WE HAVE TO DO… is repent. Repent. Give it up. Let it go. Turn away from it. Leave it behind. Receive forgiveness. Receive peace. Receive joy. Be grateful! Repent and live anew! That’s what it looks like to place faith in Jesus as Lord over our entire lives. Leave nothing in the dark. Bring it ALL to the light of Jesus and LET GO. Release it. He’ll forgive us all if we’d just genuinely repent, and not turn back.

LIVING IN OUR WOUNDS

There are those of us who don’t want to give church another chance to show itself as a representation of Jesus: loving, forgiving, blessing, and enriching us. We are living inside our wounds instead of allowing ourselves to heal and move on. This is one of the parts of life the church is meant to be great at helping us through. We are identifying with our pain and as our pain, instead of using our pain as a motive to bless others who are hurting similarly. In other words, we are cutting ourselves off from loving those whom God has placed in our path to bless when we blame the church, God, or others’ humiliation-seed-planting behaviors for our choice to remain broken and afflicted.

THE REAL ENEMY

So, who is the enemy for these people who stay in their unbelief—who leave the church and do not return? The enemy is not Jesus, or God, or the church; albeit, the devil would have us believe that. The enemy is broken faith. Our lack of trust in God, and our trespasses against Him—our sin; our own self-betrayal as we intentionally or subconsciously remain in our hurt, our misery; bitterness or resentment—rather than relying on Him. The enemy is us hanging onto what the world is saying, and not listening to what God is saying. The enemy is our choice to listen to the lies of satan and believing God doesn’t exist, simply because it’s easier to deny Him than to trust that He has a reason for allowing certain challenging things.

WHAT WE HAVE CONTROL OF

There’s a reason He allows what He does. But it’s outside our control and our knowledge. What is in our control is our choice to accept that the reason is unknown to us at this point in time. It’s in our control to choose not to feel distrust in the goodness of God when He allows painful things when we don’t understand why. We’re in control of choosing whether or not to trust Him with our pain, and not hate or deny Him because of it.

WE NEED THE CHURCH TO HELP REMIND US OF WHO WE PUT ON

We need the Bible to be preached, we need the Good News to be boldly proclaimed. We need people who believe in Jesus as Lord because we need the love that comes from people loving Jesus. When we love Jesus, we love people. We put on the new self and put away who we were. We accept what Jesus has to say, what He has to think or do, and we do that instead of what we would do. We put aside the world and take on the spirit of God so that His glory may be seen through our obedience. And we give God glory when people see Him in us. That’s what church teaches us, that’s what the Bibles tells us, and that’s the whole purpose of our relationship with God: that we come to know Him, and we share our love of Him with others.

NOT A PERFECT PLACE, BUT A FAITHFUL PEOPLE

If you’re the person who isn’t going to church because of a wound, I’m encouraging you, strongly, to revisit the possibility that the wound is an attack from the devil, who is trying to keep you out of church in order to keep you wounded, detached from the support of community, and disconnected from God—so that you remain vulnerable as he continues to attack your life with more reasons to doubt Jesus. Church is the spiritual home of people who recognize their need for Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It’s not a perfect place, or a perfect people, but it is a people leaning on God for grace (forgiveness), love, peace, and joy.

A LIGHT IN THE DARK

“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few,” said Jesus in Matthew 9:37. Where there are bigots, love them with truth, and let them be accountable for their actions and words. We must continue to shine our light of Christ for all to see who we follow. It is by our love that they will know we are Jesus’s disciples, and not disciples of a broken world (John 13:35). No one needs a broken world, but we all need a light to see in the dark. Because there, in the center of the light, is our risen Savior who frees us from ourselves. Let’s be free together and give Him glory, always. In Jesus’s name, amen.

Image by Meranda D from Pixabay