It’s no secret that a large opinion of Christians is a negative one. There is an overwhelming sense that they are a hypocritical, judgmental group of people. It’s no wonder a lot of people don’t want to attend church. If they have questions they can easily go to Google and find church websites or informational sources. There isn’t much pressing need to actually attend a church.
To make matters worse, online information is just that, there’s no personal affection, connections made, or rarely testimonials about God working in the lives of His believers. The irony lies in a group of people trying to better themselves coming across as perfect when the reality is, they know they’re not and that is why they have faith in the first place.
Amazingly, way back when the gospel first began these same feelings were present. You’ll never have to feel like you’re alone if you become frustrated with being called a hypocrite. Paul, the writer of most of the epistles in the New Testament recognized these emotions.
Paul describes the worth of knowing God and gives us a glimpse about growing as a person in honor of God in Philippians 3:8-13.
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
Plain and simple, you’re going to come across as “uppity” or “snooty” to some people no matter how hard you try, it is impossible to please everybody, it cannot be done. Trying to do so will only come back to bite you. This is one reason Paul affirms that everything is considered nothing to him in comparison to Christ. He wants to be like Jesus as much as he possibly can in order to gain it all, everlasting life.
Do not attempt to do things in your life with the concern for the opinions of others. You want to recognize what people think so you don’t come across as anti social or weird but you also don’t want to give peoples opinions too much weight. God’s opinion of you is whats important, nothing else.
Oh, and don’t let what you think people are thinking of you determine how you live your life either. Talking to yourself a little bit is okay but too much and you’ll go nuts!
Perfection should only be recognized as a goal to obtain with God because He’s already there. We can’t obtain it on our own.
Key takeaway: Don’t let your relationship with God suffer because of what you think people are thinking of you. Most of the time, people are thinking about themselves.
God bless.