One thing that you tend to quickly realize when you’re always surrounded by people who claim to be Christians is the blatant way in which they use the Bible and Christian values to hide their very non-Christian tendencies. There’s a lot of smokescreen religiousness inside the house of God, and that’s the reason why a number of people remain unconvinced of Christ.
For example, suppose you offend a Christian somehow, say, they swear at you. The normal, human reaction would be to retaliate, of course. But because this person you’ve offended is a Christian, he knows he can’t retaliate, at least not in public if his Christian faith is public knowledge. He has to brush this off, “turn the other cheek” and walk away, and ideally he should forget this happened. But no, this is not what happens. The typical Christian will say “You have sworn at me, but it is against my Christian faith to take revenge, so I forgive you my brother, I will pray for you”. Very sweet words then, but it’s wrong because you know very well that is NOT what he means. He isn’t forgiving you just like that, no. he’s saying these words because he wants you to feel bad for daring to offend a Christian, and he wants you to apologize! He’s guilt-tripping you, as only a Christian person can. And he’s doing it for his own ego. Not to teach you to not do it again, not to show you love. Purely for his ego, that’s all.
There’s a variety of other instances, examples that can be drawn up where Christians use their “faith” to take advantage of other people. It’s a pity because this does not help anyone, least of all themselves. They are no different from the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, those whom the Lord Jesus was never shy to call curses upon, because they were abusing the authority given to them. And it is because of pretenders like these that you have people who refuse to be invited to churches, not because they are opposed to the Gospel, but because they have been exposed to such horrible examples. I know of people whose parents are pastors and priests and hold positions of authority in their churches. These people grew up inside a church, but as grown-ups they want to have nothing to do with any churchy stuff. You ask them why, and they tell you about the bad examples they saw in their own parents. People who turned the Bible upside-down so they could achieve their own short-sighted agendas, while doing damage to the rest of the Kingdom.
Let us strive to show Christ in everything we do. Let’s emulate Christ. He said “Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Only is this way can we multiply the talents that have been given to us. By exhibit Christian tendencies (things which have become expected of Christians over the years) instead of true Christ-like behaviours, then we are truly wasting our time. It is better for you to enjoy your life here on earth and give pleasure to your flesh openly, then to live a cloaked life and lose your salvation anyway.
