I was scrolling on Twitter and came across a young lady who said, “As soon as I moved out of my parents’ house, the first thing I did was stop going to church…”  The tweet following that was, “Church people have the nastiest spirit.” If you have been around church as long as I have you would completely understand her sentiments. You can find the most broken people in church. They are seeking comfort for their pain and healing for their shortcomings. When people are low, feel bad about themselves, or have been through much trauma they have the potential to be very hurtful to others.  You have heard the phrase, "Hurt people, hurt people.”  This is what you find in church. They are in the right place but unfortunately, on their journey to healing they harm people along the way. These types of Christians work on looking holy and trying to please God but miss the whole purpose Christ came to die, for love. They are just saved so they don’t go to hell but miss out on a whole existence on earth that can be filled with love and goodness. When we allow the love of God to fill and transform our lives, we can’t help but overflow with love for others. When church is not transformative and our relationship with Christ is not a priority you get, “nasty-spirited Christians.” Furthermore, when people are taught from the pulpit's poor theology that encourages them to be self-righteous, condemning, and proud you get mean Christians. They don’t see themselves as truly forgiven or loved by God and the fruit of that belief is they can’t see others as worthy of forgiveness or deserving of love.  I guarantee you, the meanest Christian you’ve ever encountered doesn’t look in the mirror and say, “God really loves me.”  If they truly had an encounter with Gods love it would be impossible to behave the way that they do.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:

16 I pray that because of the riches of His shining-greatness, He will make you strong with power in your hearts through the Holy Spirit. 17 I pray that Christ may live in your hearts by faith. I pray that you will be filled with love. 18 I pray that you will be able to understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep His love is. 19 I pray that you will know the love of Christ. His love goes beyond anything we can understand. I pray that you will be filled with God Himself. Ephesians 3:16-19 New Life Version

This is how we should live.

So, on behalf of the body of Christ. I am sorry. To those who have been cut deeply by a believer, know that the Bible tells us, “..Everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) We have not been examples of Christ like we should have but know that God is so much better than his flawed ambassadors.  When I see my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, damn people to hell that Christ died for, it is such a disappointment. When the body of Christ attempts to tell society how to live and screams at their sin but doesn’t help them with basic needs such as food and shelter I shake my head in sadness. Even Christ fed the 5,000 after preaching to them all day.  It has to grieve the spirit when many evangelicals claim they love God but glorify racism and sexism. The Bible says, “..How can you love God and hate your brother.” ( 1 John 4:20) They vilify the immigrant, the refugee, an anybody who is the opposite side of their political view. It is so embarrassing, the people that call themselves followers of Christ pretending to be prolife, crying out for precious unborn lives while at the same time turn a blind eye when you ask them to support legislation that protects Black bodies from police brutality or systemic oppression.  What about how flippant so many Christians are about war? I see them post, “I stand with Israel”  but never also praying for war torn Palestinians whom God loves as well. What about Sudan and Congo?  Did Christ not die for them too? I am convinced many Christians don’t walk with the spirit because if they did they’d live lives of true compassion for humanity and not wear their Christianity like a cool t-shirt. They put it on when it’s convenient and take it off when it is not.

In the book of Revelation, God warns the church of Laodicea that they were a lukewarm church. They were haughty with their wealth and ignorant to the fact that they needed to find value in the one true God and the spiritual wealth He provides. In many America church’s right now, capitalism has more influence than the love for God and his people. So many Christians are focused on their own selfish gain and not our duty to care for the poor, unhoused, or economically disadvantaged. Revelation 3:19 shows us that whom God loves he rebukes and disciplines. He encouraged the Laodicean church to repent.  It is time for us a body of Christ to heed the heart of God regarding our lukewarmness because he loves us and wants better for his children. We are straddling the fence in how we love. We don’t value the word of God like we should therefore, we don’t value each other and we need to repent.

Here is my challenge, for those of us who see the error in our Christian community let's make it a goal to be the biggest and brightest examples of God’s love on the earth. When I spend time with God my focus is His love. His love heals, convicts, challenges, and matures me. Because I know Gods love, I can remain silent when peers gossip about me. My loving God is my defender. When I rest in God’s love I don’t worry about tomorrow because my life, finances, health, and even my dreams are in his hand. Because Gods' love is the focus I can pray for my enemies, cheer for those who have what I may be praying for, and remain longsuffering with my fellow believers when they make mistakes. This is the fruit of remaining in Gods love.  When I see pastors arguing with their enemies over the pulpit, the popular online “prophets” publicly quarrelling on social media, and church people attacking one another in comment sections I know there is a lack of spiritual maturity and a lack of knowing Gods love. When you are mature in Gods love you understand He is your vindicator.  You will hold your peace and let God fight your battle.

We’ve got to grow up!  It is time to walk in the spirit so that we don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.(Gal 5:16)

Galatians 5:22-23 says, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  When people describe you would they use many of these characteristics? The goal is to be so loving that people can’t help but desire to know the God that we serve.  We should be so loving it challenges those around us to be better people. There can be a day when instead of Christians being known for having nasty spirits; people will say, “Christians are some of the kindest people I know.” 

Prayer:

May you have a new revelation of God’s love and encounters with God that change your life. Lord, let the reader begin to seem themselves the way that you see them. Fill them with your love through the Holy Spirit so that it overflows to others. I pray  that we increase our prayer and  study of  the word so that we become so sensitive to Gods heart. As we increase in sensitivity help us to genuinely love our neighbor and pray heavily for your enemies. God, show us how to walk in humility so that we honor you in our actions. I declare that we are a generation who will be shining lights in this dark world through our love.

Love, Gab