Let me start off with my definition of a Christian: Someone who believes that Jesus died for us and was raised from the dead (everyone knows that part), AND who has surrendered their life to Him. I prefer the term “Christ follower” to Christian, because everyone says they’re Christian now-a-days, but how many of them actually do what the Bible says and care about pleasing God? Not many. I guess most of them were just raised in it, and stick with the term. However, I digress.
A few weeks ago my wonderful Pastor said something that really stuck with me. He said that we need difficult people in our lives. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Nobody likes dealing with people that rub you wrong, or annoy you, or make you want to jump off a bridge. But for us Christians (Christ follower Christians), it’s these people that really make us grow. How are we supposed to develop the fruits of the spirit if we’re surrounded by people that are easy to get along with? Patience, gentleness, etc; it’s what our lives are supposed to produce. Not gonna happen unless we’re surrounded by difficult people.
I bring this up because lately I’ve been witnessing a lot of “Christians” dealing with difficult people in a very… worldly… way. How does the rest of the world deal with difficult people? They make fun of them, gossip, call them names, you get it. But we are supposed to be known for how different our lives look compared to the rest of the world. If we’re calling people names and gossiping, that’s not getting the world’s attention, that’s just fitting right in with them. That’s not pleasing God or acting at all like Jesus.
Speaking of Jesus, remember what He said? In Matthew 5:44 He says to love your enemies. Are your enemies difficult people? You bet. And Jesus gets that. He prayed that God would forgive the very people that were killing Him. Do you pray for your enemies? No? Perhaps you should start. Our goal should be to reach everyone for God, that none should perish. That’s God’s goal; don’t you think our goal should match up with God’s? Do you want anyone to wind up in hell? As a Christian, or a “Christ follower”, you shouldn’t. We should want to save people, all people, and we’re not going to do that as long as we’re judging and gossiping and treating people like dirt just because they rub us wrong.
Just saying, let’s start looking different from the world. How else are we going to make an impact? Let’s start living the way that Jesus lived. Let’s start loving people, all people. Let’s stop being selfish and start loving people more than we love ourselves. It’s tough, I struggle with it too. So let’s help and encourage each other along the way.
Don’t agree with me? Deciding you’re going to keep doing your own thing and not worrying about what the Bible says or about what pleases God? Perhaps you don’t understand the tremendous sacrifice that was made for you, or God’s outrageous love for you. He deserves our entire lives. He deserves our best.
