Issue 1368 – My Friend – February 12, 2024

My friend is a non-believer, and over coffee, he recently made some very disparaging remarks about some of the people in the church. “With people like that involved in your religion,” he said, “I don’t want anything to do with it.”

My heart breaks when I hear things like that. Not so much about the faults of the people in the church. For all I know, he could have been right on the money with his assessment of the people in question. The church is filled with imperfect people; every Christian ever born is flawed; we are simply forgiven and on a journey to holiness.  

Still, my heart breaks for my friend. I understand his perspective because I was there for a long time too.

There are two things my friend has yet to wrap his head around. Firstly, the Christian faith has little to do with religion. It has everything to do with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The “religious” trappings are simply things that people have added.

Secondly is that people like those he made the remarks about, along with people like my friend, and you and me I, are the reason Christ came. He came to free the brokenhearted. He came to save us from the consequences of our own sin. He did not come for righteous people; he came to rescue those of us who are messed up.

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:12-17

To be sure, there are plenty of active sinners in the church. God is at work in their hearts. Becoming like Christ is a process. We are saved by our faith in His sacrifice, but He still has to mould us. We do not become perfect overnight.

There are also plenty of people in the church who are not saved but go for self-serving reasons. God is working in their hearts. There are even outright frauds in the church, who will never repent and seek Jesus. Their destiny is not pleasant.

The shame of it all is that people like my friend want to judge the church based on an impossible state of perfection. Only Christ is perfect. The people who follow Him are simply ordinary, flawed people who recognize their need for help. We are a long way from perfection.

I know that my friend’s attitude is partly a defensive position. If he can put down the church because of the flaws of the people in it, he does not have to face our own faults. If he does not face our own faults, he thinks that he will not have to acknowledge his need for Jesus. He can get away with an entire lifetime with that approach, but the eternal price will be too heavy to bear.

His defensive position is ironic because if the people in the church were as perfect as my friend would like them to be, that would become his new excuse. He would not want to have anything to do with “my religion” because of all the perfect people. I have had other friends use that excuse, saying, “I’m not good enough to go to church.”

It is my fervent prayer that someday, my friend will see that while his sins might be different from those of the people he put down, they are sin nonetheless. My friend is no less in need of Jesus than the rest of us. 

Perhaps when he comes to see that, my friend will understand that becoming a Christian is not about being perfect. He will see that he is welcome and will fit right in with the rest of us flawed sinners who are saved only by the grace of God, not by our own efforts.

Until next time, pray for the lost sheep in our lives to find the Lord. Pray for them and never give up.

Hallelu Yah (Praise God)

Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God 

Kevin

Gleanings From The Word

Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life. 

Soli Deo Gloria (For the Glory of God alone)

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