I was reading The Mark of the Christian by Francis Scheffer, in which he points out what the Christians have been known for down through the years has been their love for each other, and I’ve come to realize that’s not as much the case today. They’re known for plenty of other things, like being against abortion [pro-life], for having childish t-shirts and annoying bumper stickers, for dressing up on Sundays with their clothes and a happy smile, for talking in long intimidating words that their favorite theologians use, for voting republican, for making jokes about homosexuality, and for being jerks to people who disagree with them.
There’s something really wrong with this picture.
Something that caught my eye, or more accurately my mind, came from Donald Miller in chapter 11 of his book, Blue Like Jazz. He speaks of a time on his university campus where the students have a large festival for getting high, drinking, and whatever else goes on during the partying, with the authorities kept out of the loop. Don and some Christian friends decide to try something different by setting up a confession booth in the midst of campus, but there’s a catch. They don’t accept confessions; they give them to people, apologizing for the crusades, televangelists, neglecting the poor and lonely, and not representing Jesus well.
Well, I don’t know if his method of starting with the failures is the right one specifically when in dialogue with those who do not claim to be Christians, but those issues must be addressed within the ranks of Christianity, rather than swept under the rug, as I’ve seen happen in Christian circles, Christian schools, etc. And when brought up, it may just be to acknowledge where we’ve been failing, even if it was likely not true followers who lead the crusades, who are on your TV asking for your money, and who bomb the abortion clinics. Now let me say that I can point out many good Christian friends who are known for their love, and that’s where I get so excited seeing the outcome, and example after example in their [and hopefully my] life where responding with love was what opened the door that changed a life.
So Schaeffer may have been on to something by writing his book about how things should look, instead of calling it something like “The Problem with Christians.” He focuses on what a Christian must be known for: love. And when I say “love,” I don’t just mean it in a limited sense of getting used and being taken advantage of. Those certainly happen, but love can include showing someone the error of the path they’re on so that they can see the right one they should be on, in a sense saving them. It’s the old example of a doctor giving someone news that may seem terrible: the test results show you have cancer. So is it good news or bad news? Bad of course, but certainly good news that the cancer has been discovered, AND that it can be cured. And I’ll remind you the doctor was merely the messenger, so why does everyone want to shoot the messenger? Could it be because of how we messengers have messed up the whole process?
The whole point is this. When the Christians are characterized by love, then those around are forced to deal with the God who is there, rather than get choked up on little excuses about all the problems with the people called Christians. I’ll end by just challenging any Christian who is reading this to ask the question, “What am I characterized by?” And I’ll be asking myself the same thing.
(centered around: John 13:33-35)
Agreed. Schaeffer had a lot of good to say about what Christians SHOULD look like, not all the bad stuff their doing wrong. We need to be encouraged by stuff like this and search God’s Word for the true marks of Christians and be this true example of love. Thanks for the post – it’s sets me thinking…something we all need to do more!
Great thoughts Dan-O. I fall into the trap of defining “love” as the absence of hate. Like I didn’t insult that person, therefore I loved them! How ridiculous we are, and a good post to point out that we should focus on positively, actively loving.
“All men will know you are my disciples by your lack of hatred.” Silly.