Are Christians Just Mean People?

The wife jumped in to accuse her husband of being “old fashioned” and “narrowminded.” She said she would be happier and their marriage would last longer if she had her husband plus other relationships. She enjoyed many men and did not want to limit her experience to one mate. The husband just wanted his wife.

Do you agree with the husband or the wife?

Despite all of our erratic cultural boundaries regarding sexuality, most Americans think adultery is wrong based on most reports. Being against your husband or wife having sex outside marriage is one of the few moral boundaries we still agree on. If your spouse sleeps with somebody else, you want to cry foul. I once read a story of a 49-year-old guy. His wife walked in on him with a 38-year-old woman, smoking pot, drinking alcohol, and having sex. Things got real ugly real fast. She did not pull out her college notes on pluralism or talk about how different people see things different ways but perhaps her husband was hoping she would.

The exclusivism of the Christian faith is not a philosophical or theological talking point. It is more than a theoretical abstraction. It gets to the core of how we relate to God. The Bible repeatedly says that God loves His people like a husband loves his wife. We might consider His exclusive demands intolerant, bigoted, and close-minded, but they actually reflect His relentless pursuit of our hearts. When the God of the Bible sees people chasing other gods, He feels like a husband who walks in on his wife with another man. When they dabble in other religions and spiritualties, God calls it adultery.

One Loving Way

All the exclusive claims of Jesus need to be heard in that context of God’s relentless love for a faithful and unique relationship. When Jesus speaks truth about who He is and what He has done, His words flow from nothing less than His infinite love.

I did not make up the claim that Jesus is the only route to God. Neither did some other preacher out to create a job for himself and a market for His message. Jesus stated the essential Christian precept that He is the one and only way to heaven. Given all the different opinions floating around about Jesus, I want us to keep in mind what he said about himself. Here are a dozen amazing claims Jesus made about himself compiled in Vintage Jesus, a book I co-authored with Gerry Breshears.