I Don't Like Christians, Either

I mean, just look at them.  They've got major problems.  

They're liars and cheaters.  They're hypocrites.  They're fools.  They're judgmental and selfish. They're often not very likeable. Christians are just as likely to be at the center of a scandal as anyone else, just as likely to throw away friendships, marriages, careers, and lives due to foolish choices and sinful living.  They say they believe in kindness, but they're just as likely to walk by the needy without lending a helping hand, just as likely to waste their resources on themselves and things of this world.  They say they believe in purity, but they're just as likely to be into pornography, just as likely to be unfaithful and engage in sex before marriage.  When things get difficult or monotonous, they're just as likely to walk away from their commitments, even if those commitments were made with sacred vows before God.

Christians are totally messed up.

Did I mention that I'm one of them?

To those of you who walked away from God because of your dislike of Christians, I completely understand your sentiment.  Why would you want to be involved with these people?  They've got some serious issues.  However, that's kind of the point.

Don't judge God based on his followers.  God is not limited by the foolishness of his people.  God is the creator of the universe and all that it holds, which includes you.  He loves you more than you could ever know.  Your choice to follow God is between you and God, not between you and the Christian community.  The truth of the gospel is not affected by its followers' ability to be sinless.  Don't reject God because of Christians.  Instead, accept God because He loves you.  He loves you despite the sins you've committed, despite your flaws and mistakes.  As humans, we've all got problems.  A Christian is simply someone who has accepted that, due to their own sinfulness and their own long list of problems and mistakes, they need a savior.  And the only true savior is Jesus.

As Christians, we certainly should be striving to be living righteous, godly lives.  The Bible tells us to follow God's commandments, and that should be our goal.  However, even those who seek to live righteously will fail.  Some fail more often or in bigger ways than others, but we all fail.  One thing we should not do is sit around comparing each other's sins.  You sinned in this way and I sinned in that way, and perhaps my sins are greater than yours, but sin is sin and you need just as much grace as I do.  God doesn't have a sin meter for each of us.  The mere fact that we are sinful at all is what separates us from God, not the amount of sin.  It is the same Jesus that wipes all the sin away and promises us eternal life, where we will all be sinless.

We should not live our lives in order to look good to everyone else.  We're all sinners and we all know it.  We're going to make mistakes.  We're going to have foolish moments, and we're going to made bad decisions.  A Christian who says they have no sin is a liar and a hypocrite.  There is no such thing as a perfect Christian.  The fact that we are all sinful is part of the point of our message: we all need Jesus.  We all need to be saved.  God will take us in not because of anything great we've done, but because of his love for us and the sacrifice of his son Jesus on the cross.  He loves each and every one despite our sins.  Don't turn him away because of the rest of us.  Accept his love because it is real and true.