I grew up around the WWJD crowd. I attended the typical conferences (Promise Keepers, Billy Graham Crusades, etc) and did the requisite church activities. One thing that always interested me is how there are some Christians whom feel that there is a specific lifestyle or cultural outlook that is somehow more holy than their peers. I'm sure you've seen it too. Do some of these life outlooks sound familiar?
- "I'm more in-tune with my faith because I don't celebrate PAGAN holidays like THOSE Christians."
- "I listen to KLOVE... I can't imagine how someone can listen to an artist like Justin Beiber and claim they love Jesus!"
- "Of course I have a strong faith. I bought a plane ticket and spent 4 days in Ecuador when I was 16 painting a church!"
I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but surely you know what I'm describing. It is the individual who may be honest enough and love Jesus, but they've become accustomed to leaning on these outward symptoms to determine who is a "real Christian" vs who is living with a compromised faith.
This is modern-day Pharisee thinking. A lot of these mentalities on Christianity seem to be based more on how we have come to know Christianity in our day-in-age rather than what we see as scriptural truth. Much like the Pharisees, we have heaped our own set of rules, standards, and expectations on top of what Jesus instructed so that we can tell who is "sufficiently Christian". If you meet those expectations, then you're a "real Christian" but if you don't you obviously lack "true faith".
At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry: how he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests? Or haven’t you read in the law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-8, CSB)
For many, Christianity has stopped being about the hearts and souls of others and instead become about cultural expectations and worldly standards. It's become less about forming relationships and more about isolating ourselves from as many of the "sinners" as possible (as if WE aren't also sinners). For many Christians, we have created our own cultural and lifestyle "sacrifices" that must be offered before we can feel like we are truly close to Christ. How sad that so many professing the name of Christ would so quickly limit their access to their Messiah by creating their own ritualistic requirements! How much worse that many would rather see others who aren't "sufficiently Jesus-y in life" leave the church so that their congregation can maintain some cheap image of purity.
Christ came for our hearts. The whole point of the era beginning in the days of Moses, and extending through the Book of Malachi, was to demonstrate to mankind that there was no amount of piety we could exhibit which would garner favor with God. Grace is a gift; it can not be earned. We can not live the sufficiently pure life and matriculate into God's mercy. This is why Christ came for us with this simple aim: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
As we go through the holiday season, we should understand that we are free: free to fellowship with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, free to serve and love one another, and free to reflect and worship our God in the way which best relates to our hearts. We should take this time to guard against thinking like the Pharisees, judging the holiness of others according to what the world can observe. Instead, we should focus on taking every opportunity we can to be the hands and feet of Christ, loving, learning, and going however God calls us.
Let us live for mercy, and not be demanding of others' sacrifice.
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