Sometimes we are affected by the actions of other Christians. I don’t hide my faith as a writer, but I also don’t believe in bullying people with my faith. When I worked for others, I knew how to exercise my faith without weaponizing it. My faith was part of who I was as a representative of Christ, but it didn’t entitle me to force it upon other people. It still doesn’t. That’s why I created my Friday Faith Moments posts because it allows people to take or leave this content by their own free will. However, I have met people who are so rigid that their faith comes across as hatred instead of love, and this is where problems arise.
When Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, he gave them a telling instruction:
Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12, CSB)
Notice that it does not say to work out someone else’s salvation. It does not tell us to bully people into submission. It says to work out our own salvation. Period. Some Christians forget that salvation is an experience between one individual and God. We don’t force people into salvation. They come of their free will, and while we can pray for people, we don’t have a say in the process.
Several years ago, a coworker told me that it wasn’t John 3:16 that won her over. It was the next verse.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:17, CSB)
That was when she understood that God loved her, and she got saved. It wasn’t because someone forced her to read the Bible. It wasn’t because someone tried to make her live like a Christian. It wasn’t because she was pressured into religion. She found God in the pages of the Bible where He sacrificed His own son to save the sinful people of the world. She found God because He loved her and waited patiently for her to understand.
I enjoy hearing a person’s testimony, their story of how they found God. It’s inspiring to hear how far some people have come in their lives, and it’s humbling. I hear some testimonies that make me realize just how sinful I still am, and I’m thankful God brings those people into my life so I know to keep working out my own relationship with God. All these things play in to how I present my faith with gentleness and love to others instead of bullying and pressure, but I also struggle with how hard it is to share my faith when so many other Christians are setting a different example.
Sometimes, I turn on the news, and I see a Christian who has weaponized their faith, and they use their faith to hurt someone claiming it is God’s will. I can’t help but think, “Here we go again.” Christians who use their faith to take advantage of others cast a long shadow over other believers who are just trying to live as the Word of God teaches.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31, CSB)
Paul gave a list of Christian ethical principles to the Romans including the following:
If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18, CSB)
It is possible to maintain our Christian principles without bowing to cultural norms that go against our own beliefs and still love other people, but when some Christians attempt to force others into our faith, it makes it harder for us to move out of the shadow of that bullying. We don’t have control over the decisions other people make or the perceptions that other people have so we can’t fix all the wrongs committed in the name of God or the negative impressions that nonbelievers have because of those wrongs. What we can do is step from the shadows and love people the way God has made us to love.
Several years ago, a pastor preached to us [paraphrased], “Be so full of the Holy Spirit that people are either drawn to you to find out why you are different or they must run from your presence because they cannot stand to be around someone so full of the Spirit and goodness of God.” That’s a big assignment! Loving other people as Jesus would have us to means we are slowly reshaping the wrongs done by others in His name. Sometimes we won’t be able to fix the mistaken impressions, but other times we will prove to people that God is good with some virtuous followers. Don’t be afraid to step out of the shadows and love people as God would have us love because we are to live up to the expectations of God not humans.
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:17, NKJV)
All Things Subject to Change 