I take my morning walks early. Really early. When I walked the other morning I encountered not one, but five different people with electric blowers and clippers doing loud early morning work in their yards. The thinking, I would presume, was, "I don't want to be out there in the heat of the day, so I'll do it early." The actual message would be, "I have to suffer getting up early to do this, so I don't care if everyone else in my neighborhood has to suffer the same as long as I don't have to endure too much heat." No one ever said that, of course. I'm not convinced they thought it, either. But it was the message, loud and clear.
We've all heard, "Actions speak louder than words." We all acknowledge it is true. So what do our actions say? I'm thinking most intently here about Christians who are carrying the most important message the world needs -- Jesus. Too much of the time our words say the right thing, but our actions counteract them. We declare our love for Jesus while we ignore His explicit commands ... in full public view. We call ourselves "Christians" -- Christ-followers -- while we travel down roads He would never walk. We refuse to love our neighbors when that was His #2 command, and don't even get me started about our failure to love God "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt 22:37). I mean, "Mind? Really? Who does that?" Let alone the rest.
Paul chastised the Jews for dishonoring God by breaking the Law. "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (Rom 2:23-24). How many times have we heard, "Oh, you Christians. You're all just hypocrites"? Too many times the accusation is accurate. We claim a love for God but we live selfishly. And we wonder why we get accused of hypocrisy. Everyone of us fails and falls. The trick isn't to embrace it. The correct response is to admit it and correct it. There is no hypocrisy in "Yes, I was guilty in what you are accusing me, and I'm working on correcting it." The alternative gives God a bad name.
2 comments:
Far too often, we don't consider what our actions say about what we truly believe. The girl that walks around demanding she not be objectified and yet wearing clothing that leaves little to the imagination. The guy that speeds through traffic, weaving between cars without regard for anyone else, who is a cop for his job. We need to be better than that, not for our sakes, but for the glory of God. Unfortunately, even doing the right things for the right reasons will not lead others to glorify God because they simply don't want to.
Your final sentence is profoundly true. While I certainly could be better in how I act in a given situation, the reality is that my intention is never to displease God. Thus, we're dealing with three entities we must satisfy: 1)God, 2)Our own responsibilities in the day-to-day, and 3) Whether or not our actions lead others to God. Quite a juggling act. I'll simply do the best I can, ask forgiveness when I fall short, and leave others to believe about me and my Lord what they choose to believe.
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