When Christianity Doesn’t Look Like Christ
I’ve been around Christianity my whole life.
My dad prayed over me moments after I was born.
Long enough to see the good.
Long enough to see the gaps.
And sometimes, if I’m honest,
Those gaps aren’t small.
I’ve seen conviction without compassion.
Truth delivered with no trace of love.
Certainty that leaves no room for correction.
I’ve seen arguments won
and people lost.
And if I’m not careful,
I can drift that way myself.
Because it’s easier than it sounds.
It’s easier to defend a position
than to carry a person.
Easier to be right
than to be like Christ.
Jesus never struggled to hold truth and grace at the same time.
When I really look at Jesus,
He doesn’t fit into the version we often present.
He showed compassion to the woman at the well.
Sat with her. Spoke to her with dignity.
Offered her something better.
And He walked into the temple
and turned tables over.
Same Jesus.
Not soft in one moment and harsh in another.
Clear in both.
He was gentle with the broken.
And forceful with what was pretending to be holy.
He could look at someone in their worst moment
and still move toward them.
Not around them.
Not above them.
Toward them.
He didn’t soften truth.
He embodied it.
But people who had every reason to run from Him
kept moving closer.
That should tell us something.
When Christianity starts pushing people away,
we should probably stop and ask why.
Not to water anything down.
Not to compromise what’s true.
But to check if what we’re showing
actually resembles Him.
Because it’s possible to carry His name
and miss His nature.
I’ve done it.
Still catch myself doing it.
And I’m learning
that representing Him well
has less to do with what we say about Him
and more to do with whether we resemble Him at all.
If people walk away from us
but would have walked toward Him,
we’ve got something to wrestle with.
Because the goal was never just to be right.
It was to reflect Him.
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