People in the church really do seem to be hateful toward some and seem to look down on others. That is why we are sitting here together having this conversation. I just hope your being as genuine as I am. We have all experienced it. Perhaps there was a group in the church that talked about someone behind that person's back for any number of reasons. Perhaps we heard a preacher tell us that we were going to Hell because we are doing something that he believes is entirely sinful. Turn that phone off! Don’t you dare take a drink! Dude, Jesus commanded that we remember Him when we drink the fruit of the vine. He will have it with us when we have it together in the fulness of His kingdom. Maybe, like me, growing up you saw that the church was quick to declare the all-loving nature of Christ and the imperfection of people, yet pretended to be perfect and refuse to share the story of a Christ who desires that all people come to Him. Maybe they did share that story every Sunday morning, but it never made it to the people who needed the message outside. What kind of love is that? If Christ loves all people and desires all people come to Him, why do so many people in the organized church ignore those outside the church walls? The inconsistencies I saw growing up made me think that the whole church thing was a joke and that people who claimed to love Christ only said that so they might feel better about acting selfishly.
The difficult truth is this: there are many people in the church who claim to be people of the gracious God and, at the same time, show one version of hatred or another toward others in their action or live lives with which God is not proclaimed as absolutely preeminent. In my own opinion, that is one of the worst sins, against God and humanity.
Why is this the case? If God is all-good, why do people who claim to belong to God do terrible things? Why do we still struggle with sin?
What is it about our nature that warrants a conversation like this in this place, sitting at this table, and with this book sitting in front of us? People who claim to be God's people are not the only ones who struggle with this. Some inclusivists (people who claim to incorporate great diversity into their belief systems) seem to be hateful toward anyone with an ideology that promotes a single worldview over all others. Some atheists claim to have a greater capacity for love than the religious person, but then don't speak in a loving way concerning religious belief. Some intellectuals claim to be more prepared to live for the benefit of others, but pursue status and authority selfishly. Some of us, my generation, claim to have a better way of living than older generations, but live in such a way that the older generations suffer as a result of our lifestyles. Some who are more aged claim to be wiser for the benefit of others, but are really only concerned about fulfilling their own preferences. Some people in every category do what others consider to be evil. Thus, I realize that our question deals more with human nature as a whole and not particularly the tendencies of some who claim to be God's. People in every category do evil things. Why is this the case? Again, why do we all struggle with sin?
There is something else written in this book that comes to mind. Let me find it. Here, 1 John 1:5-2:6.
Why we are this way…
In Genesis 1, we read about the creation of humankind. People were created in God's image and were created in perfection. Perfection included the freedom to make certain choices. In Genesis 3, we read of how people used that freedom of choice to choose against a perfect God. To choose against a perfect God is to choose imperfection. In this, people sinned, walked away from God and chose to place themselves in a different condition: a godless one. My generation wasn’t the first to walk away from God. The very first generation led the way, and every generation in between followed suit.
Scripture is honest about this condition and it is something that we can plainly observe when we look at our world and even our own lives. This is what it means to say that we are fallen creatures. People have a fallen condition that is a result of sin that is a result of our need to try and be righteous. Ask me about that sometime. If we claim to be without sin, Scripture states that we have deceived ourselves and are without truth. We have convinced ourselves that people are basically good, but even basic observation would lead us to a different conclusion. The rocks are still making noise.
There are a couple of ways that we can claim to be without sin. The first, and most obvious, way is that we say with our mouths that we are without sin. When we claim with our mouths to be perfect, we deceive ourselves. What was that you said about being better than another generation? What I find is that most people will not outwardly claim to be perfect and will not profess with their mouths to be without sin. The claim is subtle, like the notes of flavor in this Old Fashioned or in the espresso I will brew tomorrow, pour over some Baily’s, and top with whipped cream, caramel drizzle, and a dash of nutmeg.
The second, and not as obvious, is that we insinuate our perfection by constantly pointing out the imperfections in others. When we focus on the faults of others, we don't usually have to think about our own faults, and this is something that many people in every worldview are guilty of. Yes, I meant to say guilty. There was a story in Scripture in which Jesus went up the side of a mountain and began to deliver some moral teachings. We know this commonly as the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus addresses the temptation of judging others:
“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
In all honesty, this should scare us. Here we have the God of the universe telling us not to focus on the faults of others, but instead to focus on our own faults. When we focus the faults of others, our attention is not on Christ. We should not assume that this is some new way that God operates. There was an instance in the Old Testament in which King David had sinned against God but was unwilling to recognize the sin in his own life. Nathan, a prophet God chose to hold David accountable, went to david and began to tell the story of another person's sin:
“So the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he arrived, he said to him:
There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up, living with him and his children. It shared his meager food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.
David was infuriated with the man and said to Nathan: “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay four lambs for that lamb.”
Nathan replied to David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:1-7).
King David was entirely willing to point out sin in the life of another man until Nathan revealed that man to be David himself. As we read more of the story, we learn that God was absolutely furious with David. We present ourselves as perfect when we complain about or constantly point out what we believe to be the insufficiencies of other people, or generations, instead of focusing on our own imperfections and sins. I apologize. I’m sorry we’ve been this way.
There is yet a third way that we present ourselves as being without sin, and I call it “Holier Than Thou Syndrome.” At church, many people act like they have it all figured out even though their lives are in shambles when they get home. I guess the same is true in this place. We dress up and talk about everything we are doing correctly. This is the tendency that many people have to act in front of people in a way that makes them look good. This forces us to not admit the struggles that we have. It also forces us to be more concerned about looking perfect than about pursuing Christ. In our effort to look good, we miss the goodness that Christ actually has for us. I might, here, refer once again to Jesus' famous sermon. In Matthew 6:1, Jesus teaches that we ought not practice our acts of righteousness before people. In Matthew 6:5-8, He teaches that prayers are to be secret, simple, and to the point (not to impress people). In Matthew 6:16, He teaches that we should not brag about our spirituality. We should not be concerned about others seeing our righteousness, and we should not be concerned about whether or not we see the righteousness of others. We won’t, not true, godly, imputed righteousness anyway.
If we claim to be without sin when we focus on the sin of others and when we present ourselves as holy, John claims that we have deceived ourselves. This is ironic because our attempt is to deceive others. When we do any of these things, all we accomplish is hurting ourselves because we are not open to Christ's leadership in our lives. If we are not basically good, it seems that there is some need for leadership and direction so that we can learn to be genuine and honest about our condition. That is not natural, we were created in God’s image. So, we try to look like gods in our own sphere. I know this drink was distilled by people in Kentucky. Those beans grown and roasted in Columbia or Ethiopia to be ground and pressed at home by us. Still we call it the nectar of the gods.
This self-deception
is mentioned by John in reference to walking in the light. John implores his readers not to deceive themselves by convincing themselves that they are without need of improvement. Instead, they are to walk in the light. To walk in the light is to adopt a lifestyle by which we are actually seeking to improve and seeking to make changes based on Christ's conviction in our lives. If we focus on the improvements that other people need to make or pretend to be more perfect than we are, then John's claim, here, is that we walk in darkness because we have made Christ Himself out to be a liar by rejecting His word for our lives. To assume that we are correct and not in need of reformation is to make the king of all creation out to be a liar… I apologize. We’ve been stuck in our own ways for far too long and we alienated you. These apologies go both ways. Have you noticed?
Our current condition according to Scripture is a fallen condition. We are all imperfect. We are unrighteous. Every person in every place and under any worldview is capable of unspeakable evils. We are also capable of not recognizing our own evil deeds because we simply don't like to be wrong. It is why we have made up this idea that people are basically good and try so desperately to cling to the errant truth we have invented for ourselves. Christ, though, challenges His people to rise above this pattern, to examine the sins and the imperfections in their own lives, and to change according to His conviction. This is a constant process in the life of the genuine Christ-follower and it is a process referred to as sanctification.
The world is full of people who do bad things. The difference for the genuine Christ-follower is that he or she is constantly being conformed to the likeness of Christ through this process of sanctification. It’s uncomfortable, but we are okay with that. The pursuit of real and beneficial social justice is uncomfortable, yet we give up everything in our pursuit. So you see that our generation is okay with being uncomfortable. That was never the issue. You didn’t have to entertain us. We just want our pursuits to be worthwhile. That’s what we need, a pursuit of Christ in the context of community that is worthwhile, not shallow and not fake and not dumbed down.
Where we’ve failed…
John claimed to write these things so that his readers might not sin. If anyone does sin, though, it is Christ who comes to our defense if we belong to Him. We've stated that evidence of our closeness with God lies in our works. Works are evidence of our closeness with God. When our works reveal that we are not close with God, it is Christ who defends us and draws near to us. This is a beautiful thing! God does not depend on people. This is grace!
John does state, though, that we can know we are in Christ if we walk as Jesus walked. In context, this means that we can know we are in Christ if we are walking in the light that we have described: allowing our sin and imperfection to be exposed to us so that we can strive for change. Jesus was perfect, but our calling here is not to exist as Jesus exists. That would be an impossible calling because we are not basically good. We are subject to our own unrighteousness and to this fallen condition. Instead, we are called to walk in the same manner that Jesus walked: in the light. This is an idea that even practically benefits those who have not received faith in Christ. If we obey God's word, striving to apply the text of Scripture to our lives, God actually makes His love complete in us. The truth about our failure is this: it doesn't matter in light of salvation. The church will be full of imperfect people, and the only way we reject God is by claiming, even by insinuation, not to have any sin or imperfection. Pastors need to start setting this example. If we boast, we boast in and from our weakness and insufficiency.
The tendency of people to perform acts of evil is a human condition, not particularly a religious condition. We are all in desperate need of Christ to begin and carry on this work of sanctification within us so that we might be conformed to His perfect image! Without Christ, we cannot be transformed in this way. No one can.
Let us, then, surrender to Christ and surrender to His work of sanctification in us. Let us not focus on the faults of others but, instead, always strive to change according to Christ's conviction. This will help us to love one another more, and it will help us to love those who are members of other generations more. It will help us to mend what we have broken by our own failures. It is not our job to change one another. It is not up to us to change the actions and behaviors of those in our community. That is a job that belongs specifically and strictly to the Holy Spirit. Thank the Lord for that! All God asks us for is faithfulness to His sanctifying work of conviction in our lives while we are on this earth. God's sanctifying work, His grace, draws us into deeper commitment and greater works for Him.
Why do people do bad things? We live in a fallen condition. Why do we struggle with sin? Because we are still being sanctified. There are people who claim to be Christians who do not follow Christ, but for those who do, sanctification will be a regular part of life for as long as we live on this earth.
Sip. That one burned as it went down.