Seven ways Christians fail to be Christian

Since I’m a Christian, I’m not exactly thrilled about writing this. But it wouldn’t be honest not to admit that we Christians too often blow it in these seven ways:

1. Too much money. Here is what Jesus Christ said about money:

“Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” (Luke 12:33)
“You cannot serve God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19)
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:25)

I just don’t see how Jesus could have been any more clear about his desire for “wealthy Christian” to be an oxymoron.

2. Too arrogant.  Despite what we’re often led to believe, we Christians are no more or less moral than anyone else in the world. Morality is determined by character, not religion.

3. Too action-oriented. We should spend less time out in the world acting “in the name of God,” and more time in meditation and prayer feeling how God is trying to act on us.

4. Too invasive. Unless they’re harming others or themselves, we should let people be. The very best way to show how God is working in our lives is to stop telling people how God should be working in their lives.

5. Too quick to abandon logic. When talking to others about our faith, we Christians too often resort to language and lines of reasoning that abandon the norms of rational logic. We should always be careful to speak of our religious experience as if it is the entirely subjective phenomenon that it is and must remain.

6. Too insular. We Christians spend too much time hanging out with other Christians. It’s good for anyone to be with their own tribe, of course. But we must remember that our real tribe, and the real tribe of every person, is all of mankind.

7. Too uneducated about the Bible and Christianity. We too often embarrass ourselves by showing how unfamiliar we are with the history of Christianity and/or what the Bible actually says. No one expects every Christian to be a Bible scholar. But people do have a right to expect us to be truthful about the limits of our knowledge.

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