BASS

How do you pronounce the title of this entry?  Do you pronounce it like you are talking about an aquatic creature, or do you say it like you would if you were referring to a four stringed musical instrument?  It really depends on the context of what you are discussing, doesn’t it?  Now think about what a lost person pictures when they say “Christian” compared to what we as followers of Christ mean when we refer to ourselves as Christians.  Are we talking about the same thing?  Most likely not.  Why is that?  I think it is because for to long followers of Christ have given the world a very negative picture of what it means to be a Christian.  In a sense, we have turned ourselves into a caricature of sorts.  Now we are quick to condemn the media or the entertainment industry when they paint us in an unfavorable light, but many times it is the result of our behavior not lining up with what we say we believe that causes this mis-characterizations.  Imagine if you will how the world would perceive believers if we really did try to love everyone as Christ loves us.  We talk about agape love, but then we have a tendency to place conditions on our love if we are going to give it to those outside of the church.

Christ said that the way the world would be able to notice us is by the love that we have for each other (John 13:35).  He also told us to love our enemies(Matthew 5:44), and to love our neighbor as ourself (Matthew 22:39).  Plus, the Bible is full of references that tell us how we are to love God.  Now let’s review.  These  verses say we are to love fellow believers, our enemies, our neighbor, ourself, and God.  That pretty much covers everything.  Based on that I can’t find anyone that I am not supposed to love.  Can you?  I didn’t think so.  Still, when the world sees us, do they see us loving the way God tells us to?  Unfortunately, no, they do not.  They see us not getting along with other believers because of the translation of the Bible we use, or for the music we sing in our churches, or for the types of clothes we do or don’t wear.  The list can go on and on, and the  vast majority of those reasons are useless when it comes down to what is really important in the Kingdom of God.

Now I will be the first to tell you that there are things in Christianity that cannot be compromised.  We cannot compromise the fact that there is only one way to God, and that is through a personal relationship with Christ.  We cannot compromise the fact that sin is sin.  We cannot compromise the fact that Christ is who scripture says that he is and that he died for the sins of the world.  You get the idea.  But once we understand what can’t be compromised we should realize how unimportant the other things are.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that a lot of them are tools that Satan uses to cause the Church to present a divided front that makes us appear to not know what we are really talking about.  If we would focus on loving like Christ teaches us to love, without condition, we would be able to reach  lot more people with the saving message of Christ.  I once heard a saying that went something like this, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”  There is a lot of truth in that statement, and when it comes to us as followers of Christ we can take it a step further and realize that they don’t care who we say we know (Christ) until the know how much we care.  When the world say “Christian” they should see it as something positive, but it seems like we have become our worst enemy in many areas when it comes to showing the world what it really means to bear that  name.  Could it be because we have allowed Satan to get our eyes focused on what is not important as we travel along the path?