It’s People Like You…

Every believer hopes, prays and works for more believers. A man cannot be born again, be carried into the kingdom and then close the door behind him. Jesus commands us to disciple the nations, baptizing them and teaching them all that He commands. The debate is often over how to do that. Street preachers are often considered uncouth, while hipster churches equipped with big screens, skinny jeans and fog machines are often considered worldly and untethered.

There are arguments both for and against competing strategies. I want to point out, however, that one argument bandied about on all sides, is no argument at all. How often believers look down their noses at other believers and suggest “It’s people like you who keep other people out of the kingdom.” Do the foibles of one group of Christians really block the doors to heaven from unbelievers? And if they do, isn’t it likely we’re guilty on all sides? Hippies looking down their noses at squares are just as pharisaical as squares looking down their noses at hippies.

“It’s people like you that drive people away from Jesus.” “If we don’t change the perception/convictions they have of us, they’ll never come in.” On the other hand some seem to suggest that what Christians do and how we behave has no impact whatsoever on the decisions of unbelievers. The truth is that unbelievers don’t need any help in their unbelief. Romans 1 teaches that all of us, in our natural state, actively suppress all that we know that God has revealed to us. No one can accuse the God of heaven and earth of doing it wrong. No one will be able to stand before Him and say, “Well, if You had presented Yourself this way, I would have repented and turned to you.”

What underlies this kind of perspective isn’t a heart for the lost, but a heart for the approval of the lost. That is, Christians are tempted to hide from whatever complaints unbelievers make. If the Bible disapproves of sexual sin that the world approves of, and faithful Christians concur, disapproval comes on us. So we shove our brothers and sisters under the bus. If the world complains that we are judgmental, we join in, thanking God we are not like those judgmental Christians. We seek the approval of man, natural man, whose nature is at war with God Himself.

John warned us about this, telling us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15). This love of the world does not necessarily mean embracing the ways of the world. It may well mean hungering for the world to return our love. And all it costs is betraying others for whom Jesus died. We are all betrayers, and sufficient reason to both drive people away from Jesus and drive people to Jesus. We drive them away from Jesus because we are all sinners. We drive them to Jesus because they are too. We’re beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. Let’s not grumble about the table manners, good or bad, of other beggars.