I get it.

There are many professing Christians—or even those who market themselves under the moniker of “faith”—who possess an innate ability to repulse people. While I have met (and even know) people with this particular trait, it is inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible. If you claim to know Jesus Christ and practice Christianity, God expects us to act like his Son.

From a practical and anecdotal standpoint, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Judaism, and Atheism do not give Christianity a bad name; Christians do. Yet the spiritual element cannot be overlooked. While those who reject the idea or concept of an unseen world may find this statement self-serving, it nonetheless remains a fact.

What is done, the actions of people, do not occur in a vacuum. When there is a crime, investigators not only seek what was done but they look for why it was done—the motive. True, some may quibble over terminology and may reply the workings of the mind cause action, I aver while the mind may give reasons for the “why,” this explanation cannot answer from where the “why” originated.

The collective “a-ha” now builds, allowing for the “nature vs. nurture” argument to be applied. Yet this is unsatisfactory. Nature and nurture only allow for the responsibility of an action or actions to be placed elsewhere. This explanation seeks to indict those in the past, not making an argument for the action at hand nor providing a prima facie reason for an action to occur.

Do we ever ask, as a people, to seek the reason something occurs and desire to identify an individual or individuals who are responsible? To claim two brothers were raised in an abusive family environment still cannot assuage the curiosity of those seeking to find both a “why” and the place from “where” such an action originated as these two brothers killed their biological parents. Even in the Bryan Kohberger murder trial, his plea of guilt avoided the death penalty yet failed to provide answers for the families of those killed.

Again, I get it. From the Theo Bros on YouTube to people who assume if you don’t vote exactly like they do you ride the proverbial roller-skate through the gates of Hell, there are many annoyingly loud voices who claim Jesus Christ. Yet they do so as they manage to “annoy the Hell out of the people” they claim are going to Hell. Allow me to point out the Bible never resorts to such imbecilic methodology.

God’s Word (the Bible) is quite clear: every single person that has lived, does live, or will live is destined to spend their life apart from God from the moment they are conceived (Take a breath! Save it for another post). No one fitting the above-mentioned criteria knows for sure who belongs to God or who does not (beyond doubt). Those who belong to God, however, must live like they belong to him. Politics, group identification, personal preferences, clothing, housing, or geography must all take a back seat to what is most important: Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul, a man who endured incredible suffering through loss and pain for his Lord, wrote a small church in the city of Phillipi saying, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Nothing political, economic, national, or personal is more important or worth more than knowing Jesus Christ as Lord.

That people are sinful, selfish, spiteful, and treat things not religious as their religion demonstrates imperfection firstly, not whether they are known by God as his. Yet those who claim Christ—true and genuinely so—should possess the humility to own up to their error and sin. What a Christian has in Christ is not because they are better but rather Jesus Christ is.

I get it.

In all the grace-laden humility I have received from Jesus Christ, I ask those of you festering something akin to hatred for Christianity to consider this: do not look for an accurate picture of Jesus Christ in your fellow humanity. I ask that you see people with something rarely experienced in our society and culture: recognize them as people like yourself. Weak, inconsistent, imperfect, and prone to being a royal pain in the hind parts of many.

Because you can only see God when you ask to see Jesus Christ. If you find yourself moved to think and act this way realize it’s not you on your own desiring this. It is the Father pulling you toward his Son.

My desire is you get him. Grace! Jim