Can’t Christians Just Get Along?
At my small group this week we watched a DVD from the Nooma series called Bullhorn. It discusses the sort of evangelism that happens when someone stands on a street corner somewhere with a bullhorn and preaches at people passing by. In the discussion afterwards one of the things that we talked about was how the perception of Christianity in the wider community is affected by this sort of preaching and what it means to us as we seek to be Christ’s ambassadors to those around us. One of the points that was made is that society’s perception of Christianity is formed by only a very small percentage of Christians and not necessarily those that best communicate Jesus love and freely available salvation. The challenge to us was to represent Christ better to those around us so that Jesus love is communicated more effectively. In particular if the world will know us as Christians by our love, as it says in John 13:34-35 then we need to be able to show love for those around us just as we love God, as we are commanded in Matthew 22:36-40.
During the discussion we also talked about different wrong perceptions of Christianity and one of the things that came up was nominalism, sometimes also called religion, where people go through the motions of Christianity but don’t have a relationship with Jesus. To my way of thinking this is akin to the church being just another interest group or service club with many more complex rules and requirements than say Apex or Rotary. Many people come into contact with Christianity this way, as a set of rules and behaviors to be followed to be a good [insert denomination membership here]. The question is though, is this better than nothing? Is the fact that the rules and procedures were at one point based on a real relationship with Jesus a step towards having that relationship or a dangerous compromise? More importantly should we as Christians be critical of nominalism in other churches and what effect will this criticism have on the perception of Christianity by others?
And there is the dilemma. If we are criticizing other Churches then what message are we sending to those unsaved people about what the church is about? Just on the weekend I was relating the fact that I went to Paradise Community Church to another Christian whilst an unsaved person was present. When I told him he made disparaging comments about the “Prosperity Gospel” preached at Paradise (I disagreed) and about the church in general. What impression is someone who doesn’t know Christ going to have of him when 2 Christians first point of discussion is doctrinal differences between each other’s denomination? Madness.
And so if we believe that nominalism is wrong, and I certainly do, do we remain silent to preserve apparent harmony and perhaps leave the denominationally unsaved to be lulled into a false sense of ritual security or do we speak out in favor of real Christianity but run the risk of displaying a discordant unloving spirit that cannot help but convince those who have no church affiliation that their cherished perceptions about the church are absolutely correct? There is a tightrope to tread here lest we fall to the left or to the right and plunge down into misrepresenting the gospel and leading people further away from Christ rather than displaying His boundless love and grace toward His creation. Fortunately the narrow path is a God specialty.
I do think we are called to speak up for a relationship with Jesus that goes beyond rules and rituals. I believe that the rules and rituals can be given meaning by a relationship with Jesus but on their own they have no value. Jesus says this in Mark 12:33 and Saul is criticised for getting it wrong in 1 Samuel 15:22. To say nothing about this is to misrepresent the gospel we have been called to be witnesses of. On the other hand we know that God loves everyone no matter who they are, even if they have no relationship with Him. It was whilst we were still sinners that Christ died for us after all. We are called to love everyone in order to display the love that Christ has given us to His glory.
How do we resolve the dilemma? I think you have to go back to 1 Corinthians 13:6: in order to be loving we have to be truthful so we need to speak the truth of the gospel but the rest of 1 Corinthians 13 tells us the other things we need to be doing to be loving. It’s quite a list. I encourage you to go and ponder it a while and think how it relates to everyone you come into contact with each day. In speaking the truth of the gospel to whomever we cannot afford to forget those words, to consistently strive to live up to them, to depend on God to give us the grace to put them into practice and to seek God’s forgiveness every time we fail. It’s why Jesus died for us.
