“None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.” -Acts 5:13
“And they glorified God because of me.” -Galatians 1:24
One of the biggest chasms which true Christianity has to cross if it is to reach “Christian” societies is that of hypocrisy. This is a common complaint, one everyone is undoubtedly familiar with, but because of that I think we have become too casual in ignoring it. When faced with a charge of being a hypocrite, most Christians respond back with either two defenses. Either they look at the critics life and say, “Well, here’s something you do that is hypocritical…” or they say “At least I am trying to live the right way.” Neither of these is usually wrong when you say it, but to take Paul out of context, this may be permitted but that doesn’t mean it’s beneficial.
Research shows that upwards 85% of 19-44 year olds view present-day Christianity as hypocritical, so if we were to fold at every person who says they don’t want to be a Christian because Christians are hypocrites then we are not going to accomplish much. However, there is also no reason to fight fire with fire. Instead, I think we would be best served if we took to heart the verses I listed above.
In Acts 5:13 it says “None of the rest dared join them.” That is interesting. The onlooking unbelievers (in this case in Jerusalem) did not dare to join the early Christians. But why? Was it because they were crazy Bible thumping, judgmental, gay bashing religious nuts? No, because as we see “but the people held them in high esteem.” They thought well of the Christians. They saw their lives and the result of their faith in God through their actions towards man and they thought well of them. So then, if they thought that the Christians were generally good people, then why did they not join them? Because the unbelievers were dead in their sins (Ephesians 1:1-3) and refused to turn from “for doing what the Gentiles want to do (1 Peter 4:3).” As Paul says in Romans, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (1:21).” So, we see that the people did not refuse joining the Christians NOT because they were hypocritical and lived lives indistinguishable from the world, but because the unbelievers did not honor God.
Unfortunately, we can’t usually be found to level the same conviction and condemnation against unbelievers. It would not be commonly said of most people claiming to be Christians today that unbelievers hold them in high esteem. Instead, we allow our indiscretions and lack of self-control to give the condemned an excuse for their unbelief. Not that they have an excuse, but that they can’t be convicted to turn from their ways because we are unable to say as Paul that “they glorified God” because of us. More like it, we are probably guilty of being able to say “they doubted God because of us” or “they cursed God because of us.” When we live our lives in a way that adds offense to the Gospel (which is already offensive enough; 1 Corinthians 1:23) then we distract from the message of the cross and we impair their ability to see the utter depravity and inadequacy of a life lived outside of the Lordship of Christ.
If we are to reach the people of our Christian societies we must first work to sanctify ourselves, to conform our lives to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29), so that our lives will serve as a witness to the transforming power of God’s mercy and love (1 Peter 1:3). If we are to help people see Christ, we must first make sure that we don’t stand in the way, and let it be our prayer that we can live and serve in such a way that people will glorify God because of us!
Posted by Todd Burus
