In an article on CNN’s Belief Blog, Jonathan Acuff (author at stuffchristianslike.net) details why, he believes, Christians are often times jerks on the internet. He gives two major reasons, the first being the powerful sense of anonymity that the internet provides. He calls it “business traveler” Christians. But this, I think, is the reason that almost everyone is a jerk online.

The other reason, however, I found really poignant. “Room Cleaning Christianity”, he calls it. I’ve included the excerpt, but you can find the full article here:

Why do Christians argue about drinking beer or why the tankini is the least slutty of all bathing garments? I think it’s because we sometimes practice "Room Cleaning Christianity." Think of it like college. When you’ve got a final paper due Monday, you will be amazed at how energetic your desire is to clean your room. You will scrub tile with a slow toothbrush if it means avoiding the bigger, more difficult work of writing your paper. The same thing happens with Christianity. Loving your neighbor might be simple, but it’s not easy. Maybe my neighbor is a jerk too. Maybe they hate God. Maybe they are actively and violently opposed to everything I believe. And showing them grace feels impossible. So instead of dealing with that, we get online and police people. We find small things to focus on that will distract us. I think God wants us to discuss the little stuff, but we make it an idol when we practice room cleaning Christianity at the exclusion of love. And we tend to become jerks.

I couldn’t help but find this well observed. But not just online. Everywhere.

Christians love to debate trivial parts of our faith. Not to imply any part of our faith is truly ‘trivial’ in its absolute sense, per se, but that there are clearly issues that fall on the outskirts. I can attest to this when looking at many past situations in my own life.

Plenty of times after just meeting someone, perhaps we’re sitting around a fire or smoking hookah, the conversation inevitably turns to things of spiritual significance. But the topics are almost universally fringe. Is using swear words okay, how do you feel about Christians and mind altering substances, what about attending a local church. I could go on. But rarely, if ever, do those conversations ascend to things like the awe inspiring power of Jesus on the Cross, the joy of undeserved grace, or God-forbid, what we’re learning in our private study times.

Acuff has made an excellent point. We may meet with someone who shares with us the most important connection in the universe—the mutual redemption of our souls—but all we want to discuss is whether you should be baptized as an infant or an adult.

Interesting points. Next time, I’d like to put off cleaning the room.

I was reading the Parable of the Sower this afternoon. It’s a familiar passage. It’s the story where Jesus describes the sower who drops seeds in various different growing conditions and explains what happens to them:

Luke 8:4-8:

And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: "A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold." As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Just after this parable, Jesus explains that the Sower is God and the seeds are people who have heard the Gospel. Some fail to believe for one reason or another, and others take root and nourishment and grow into thriving believers.

As Christians, we have a tendency to want to apply this verse to those around us, rather than to ourselves. Perhaps its the part of us that itches for gossip. I don’t know. But in reality, it’s not for us to know where others fall in regards to this parable.

When we read this parable, it is for us to know for ourselves and watch our own steps, as well as understand the way the Kingdom of God works. But it is not for us to look to our left and right and say, “this person is a seed that fell along the path”, or “this person is a seed that fell among the thorn bushes.” Plenty of people may appear to have fallen along the path or among the thorns or among the rocks, but in time will find roots in good soil.

We should read this passage and wonder not about others, but about ourselves. We should use this passage as guide to aide us as we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. We should take this passage and pray that we are taking root in good soil, even though the enemy will try and pluck us up and the thorns of life will certainly try and choke us out, and we may fear at times that we do not have enough moisture to grow and survive.

if we are ever to apply this verse directly to those around us, it isn’t theologically or practically, it’s prayerfully in the same way we should pray for ourselves. For good soil, for faith and life.

I’ve heard it often argued that it is unfair for unbelievers today because Jesus and the disciples are not here doing the kinds of signs and wonders that were happening in biblical times. That perhaps if they were, those who will not believe on the testimony of God’s Word would believe. Of course, we know from scripture that those who will not believe the Word, won’t believe miraculous signs either (John 11:11).

Now, some believe that these signs are still happening today somewhere and that we don’t see them here in our country for one reason or another. However, I subscribe to the belief, which I believe to be a biblical one, that we do not see these kinds of signs today for precisely the same reason.

The signs that were performed in the days of the early church were so that we today might believe. If the kinds of signs seen in the early church continued today, it could easily be argued that the bible itself were somewhat null, since there were another God-breathed source of spiritual revelation.

Take a look at a couple of the concluding verses in John.

John 20:30-31:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

The signs performed by Jesus and his disciples weren’t a pattern for the way that people would believe the Gospel, rather they were the sign that we should believe the Gospel—even today on the very same testimony and sign.

God’s word in the bible is the sign for believers and unbelievers alike.

James 4:4 says,

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

In the past couple weeks this verse has become a bit haunting to me. I know that it doesn’t speak directly to my situation, but the principals apply nonetheless.

As I’ve been developing a discipline in prayer of the past couple of months, one of the things I’ve tried to make a priority is prayer for the lost. Specifically individuals in or around my life that don’t know Jesus yet. I think this has begun to deepen the seriousness of their plight in my heart and mind. When I’m around them, their spiritual condition is more on the forefront of my mind than it was in the past.

The trouble is, though my mind is there, my actions aren’t following yet.

It was recently that I was out with a handful of believers and about as many non-believers. At some point during the evening, I looked around and noticed that we weren’t too much different from them. At least not obviously. I don’t mean to imply these were particularly rough people. They were friendly, nice enough and weren’t even especially vulgar. But they weren’t loving either.

Neither were we.

And that’s the problem. Not especially loving to each other, to them or obviously to anyone else. I can’t help but wonder how we expect questions about “the hope that we have” when we’re not even obviously different.

Now, please, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that we dawn exclusively black and white attire, with big hats and belt buckles. Nor am I really suggesting that there should be frivolous encouragements thrown around. I’m simply saying that our choices and actions should be shining with love for each other. That is how the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples–heck that’s how I became a believer.

I can’t help but feel like God is often working in spite of his Church, rather than through it.

It seems that people often read verses in the bible about the way God works through believers and assume that it’s true of them. But simply because the bible says that God does it, doesn’t mean he always does it. And, judging my what I’ve seen throughout most of my walk, in me and in my brothers and sisters, it seems unlikely that those verses are talking about us!

I would like to see, through prayer and Spirit lead sanctification, my own choices and my own attitudes, along with the whole church, shift. So that when the world sees us they will actually have a reason to wonder.