mgpcpastor's blog

It’s always helpful to read a piece like this one from Leon Brown at Reformation 21.
In it he speaks of how the truth that Christians constantly need God’s forgiving grace is overwhelmed by Christians themselves who feel the need to portray themselves not having significant problems lest they be judged by other Christians as failures; which in turn cultivates the perception outside the church that when Christians do fall into public sin that they are hypocrites and that their Christian faith has failed.
Which is exactly counter to our message that we’re not Christians because we’re good, rather we’re Christians because we’re forgiven.

A couple of excerpts:

Sunday mornings are the time to be on your best behavior. You cannot show weakness; you cannot fail. Lest the corporate confession of sin, there is no place for brokenness. There is an imaginary sign above the entrance of the church that says, “This is the place for those in perfect health.”
It troubles me to know this reality exists. This observation caused me to ask a question: “Why?” Why are things like this? I began to pursue my inquiry. Overwhelmingly, and this is not limited to my congregation, when I asked people why their actions depict their lives are in perfect order when I know things are a bit chaotic, the response I received was, “I don’t want to be judged.” They believed there was no room for reasonable transparency in the church. It was expected that one’s children be in perfect order, spouses on the same page, and singles portrayed as if they struggle very little with contentment.
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One of the constant accusations I hear from unbelievers is that the church is full of hypocrites. However we handle that accusation, I wonder if the point behind it is that sometimes people in the church present themselves as perfect. As soon as the Christian veneer is shattered, unbelievers’ image of how Christianity affects one’s life is ruined. They were under the impression that Christianity makes one perfect (not positionally perfect (i.e., righteous) but presently perfect in thought, word, and deed). Therefore, once they realize the untruth to that manifestation of Christianity and that Christians, too, often face the same problems they do, Christians are labeled as hypocrites. In unbelievers’ minds, the mask was removed.

Read the whole post, with Brown’s suggested correctives, at Reformation 21.