I saw this comic by Mike Lukovich on ajc.com and I thought it was very interesting:
This comic made me think about how different people view Christians. Unfortunately, we have this overall reputation of being judgmental and hateful. How did this happen?
Christianity has been given a bad name.
While working on my Marketing degree in college, I had a concentration in Public Relations (PR). One of the most important components of a successful company is its image. They can market and sell products all day long, but if the general public considers the company to be bad in any way, it will hurt business. And PR, like the good or bad press a company receives, has a lot to do with helping our hurting that image.
Christianity has received a lot of bad press.
I am so tired of seeing hateful people claiming to be Christians on TV. I see these “Christians” screaming hurtful messages, telling homosexuals that God hates them and they’re going to hell. I see these “Christians” looking down their noses at Muslims and treating them like they are scum. I see these “Christians” judging prostitutes and drug addicts, continually treating them like outcasts and deciding that God doesn’t love them. I see these “Christians” judging other Christians and comparing themselves amongst themselves by standards that aren’t even in the Bible.
I see these “Christians” treating others as if they are so evil and wicked that God doesn’t want anything to do with them.
And because of these “Christians”, people think that there is this selfish, angry, hateful God in heaven waiting to condemn people and send them to hell. People think that unless you’re perfect, like these so called Christians, God wants nothing to do with you.
And these people are the ones we see on the T.V. screen and on the internet sending hurtful, hateful messages around the world.
And this gives Christianity a bad name because last time I checked the Bible said that God is love.
We, as Christians, need to show people the love of God. Now, I'm not saying this because I've got it down pat, but because I can see how love has started to change me.
I used to feel so condemned because of the way that other “Christians” treated me that I just assumed God felt the same way. The more I’ve gotten to know the real and living God, the more I’ve realized that He’s not up there condemning me, but loving me.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)
At The Well, we have been talking about the importance of loving other people. You can’t, or shouldn’t, do ministry without the love of Christ. And, simply and most importantly, you can’t be a good Christian without the love of God.
In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 it talks about the importance of love:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
So, we can know a whole bunch of scriptures, we can go to church every Sunday, we can know all the right “Christian” phrases, we can volunteer and do good things and be pretty decent “Christian people”, but if we do not love others like God loves them, then it all means nothing.
I’m saying all this because I‘ve been there. And I know this because I used to do it. It was so easy to get caught up, thinking that because I go to church and do all these things I’m somehow now better than people who don’t. I have noticed that there are a lot of “Christians” that get so focused on the things they do (or don’t do) and the few little scriptures that they have followed that they’ve missed the whole point of the Bible.
I have been in church my whole life. And what I noticed is that some church folk have this religiousness and fakeness about them; they can go through all the motions without any true emotion. They can sing all the songs on Sunday and tell you that they “love you with the love of the Lord”, but it’s empty and not real. They don’t have Gods love in them. And it’s a shame because they have been deceived.
John 15:12-13 says “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Jesus laid down His life for us, even those of us who treat him like dirt, even for those who hate Him. He loves us so much that He laid His life down. If Jesus Christ loves, and we call ourselves His followers, then who are we not to love?
How can we look down our noses at anyone, knowing that we are only sinners saved by grace? What makes us better than anyone else? How can we say we are Christians and not have God’s love? It’s time for us as a church to re-evaluate our salvation to see if we are even in the faith.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)
God loves all people because God is love!
Now, there are things in our lives that God doesn’t like, but He doesn’t hate us as people. He has given us each free will, the power to do, believe in, and live whatever we want, even if our ways separate us from Him.
He loves each and every one of us and wants a relationship with each and every one of us. He wants to save us, heal us, cleanse us, and give us abundant life.
So, as Christians, we are God’s representatives on earth; we are His PR. And quite frankly, as a whole we are doing a pretty crappy job of keeping God’s good name.
We as Christians need to get ourselves together, stop hating, and love God’s people. We need to consider and love Muslims, Buddhists, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, etc and respect them as God-created human beings. We need to reach out to and love homosexuals and other people who are hurting that the church has turned its back on. We need to connect with and love prostitutes, pimps, and drug addicts and all those who are physically, mentally, and spiritually trapped in bondage.
We need to love them just like we need God to love us.
Leave a comment and tell me what you think; I’d like to hear from you.
Christianity has been given a bad name.
While working on my Marketing degree in college, I had a concentration in Public Relations (PR). One of the most important components of a successful company is its image. They can market and sell products all day long, but if the general public considers the company to be bad in any way, it will hurt business. And PR, like the good or bad press a company receives, has a lot to do with helping our hurting that image.
Christianity has received a lot of bad press.
I am so tired of seeing hateful people claiming to be Christians on TV. I see these “Christians” screaming hurtful messages, telling homosexuals that God hates them and they’re going to hell. I see these “Christians” looking down their noses at Muslims and treating them like they are scum. I see these “Christians” judging prostitutes and drug addicts, continually treating them like outcasts and deciding that God doesn’t love them. I see these “Christians” judging other Christians and comparing themselves amongst themselves by standards that aren’t even in the Bible.
I see these “Christians” treating others as if they are so evil and wicked that God doesn’t want anything to do with them.
And because of these “Christians”, people think that there is this selfish, angry, hateful God in heaven waiting to condemn people and send them to hell. People think that unless you’re perfect, like these so called Christians, God wants nothing to do with you.
And these people are the ones we see on the T.V. screen and on the internet sending hurtful, hateful messages around the world.
And this gives Christianity a bad name because last time I checked the Bible said that God is love.
We, as Christians, need to show people the love of God. Now, I'm not saying this because I've got it down pat, but because I can see how love has started to change me.
I used to feel so condemned because of the way that other “Christians” treated me that I just assumed God felt the same way. The more I’ve gotten to know the real and living God, the more I’ve realized that He’s not up there condemning me, but loving me.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)
At The Well, we have been talking about the importance of loving other people. You can’t, or shouldn’t, do ministry without the love of Christ. And, simply and most importantly, you can’t be a good Christian without the love of God.
In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 it talks about the importance of love:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
So, we can know a whole bunch of scriptures, we can go to church every Sunday, we can know all the right “Christian” phrases, we can volunteer and do good things and be pretty decent “Christian people”, but if we do not love others like God loves them, then it all means nothing.
I’m saying all this because I‘ve been there. And I know this because I used to do it. It was so easy to get caught up, thinking that because I go to church and do all these things I’m somehow now better than people who don’t. I have noticed that there are a lot of “Christians” that get so focused on the things they do (or don’t do) and the few little scriptures that they have followed that they’ve missed the whole point of the Bible.
I have been in church my whole life. And what I noticed is that some church folk have this religiousness and fakeness about them; they can go through all the motions without any true emotion. They can sing all the songs on Sunday and tell you that they “love you with the love of the Lord”, but it’s empty and not real. They don’t have Gods love in them. And it’s a shame because they have been deceived.
John 15:12-13 says “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Jesus laid down His life for us, even those of us who treat him like dirt, even for those who hate Him. He loves us so much that He laid His life down. If Jesus Christ loves, and we call ourselves His followers, then who are we not to love?
How can we look down our noses at anyone, knowing that we are only sinners saved by grace? What makes us better than anyone else? How can we say we are Christians and not have God’s love? It’s time for us as a church to re-evaluate our salvation to see if we are even in the faith.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)
God loves all people because God is love!
Now, there are things in our lives that God doesn’t like, but He doesn’t hate us as people. He has given us each free will, the power to do, believe in, and live whatever we want, even if our ways separate us from Him.
He loves each and every one of us and wants a relationship with each and every one of us. He wants to save us, heal us, cleanse us, and give us abundant life.
So, as Christians, we are God’s representatives on earth; we are His PR. And quite frankly, as a whole we are doing a pretty crappy job of keeping God’s good name.
We as Christians need to get ourselves together, stop hating, and love God’s people. We need to consider and love Muslims, Buddhists, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, etc and respect them as God-created human beings. We need to reach out to and love homosexuals and other people who are hurting that the church has turned its back on. We need to connect with and love prostitutes, pimps, and drug addicts and all those who are physically, mentally, and spiritually trapped in bondage.
We need to love them just like we need God to love us.
Leave a comment and tell me what you think; I’d like to hear from you.
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