There are no Christians
Filed under: Family, Friendship, Community, Religion, Spirituality for such a time
My roommate at college was always praying. He prayed when he got up in the morning. He prayed when he came in at lunchtime. He woke up at 3am every other morning to go out to the fields to pray with some of his church mates. He would meet with these church mates at least twice a week in the evenings for prayer meetings or bible readings in the room.
But my roommate was filthy. If he bathed three times a week, that was a good week. If he did his laundry once a month I was lucky. His wardrobe resembled the scene of an atomic bombing. Dirty clothes were thrown in there in a not very pleasant mixture with exercise books, library books, shoes, newspapers, unfinished meals, Christian literature, and other paraphernalia.
Don’t get me wrong, we got along pretty well, but let’s just say we differed on a number of issues.
I go to church on Sunday and I am reminded of my dear roommate. So many Christians. Always praying. Always reading the Bible. Always in a world of their own that does not include their next door neighbours, their next of kin. I continuously fail to understand how churches can fill up every Sunday and yet I see no acts of faith to balance this. I wonder how we can have so many Christians in the world and at the same time so much injustice that goes unchallenged. It puzzles me how people brutalise each other and the Christianity in the world is powerless to stop this.
As a student I witnessed other students almost starve to death due to sheer poverty. Not once did I see the Christian community do anything about this. I saw female students verbally harassed almost every day and hoped one day that the Christian brothers and sisters would do something about this. I am still hoping.
Today I see a Zimbabwe in peaceful turmoil and quiet anguish. I see a desperately silent nation that wants to say something, to do something, but has not the courage or the strength to do so. We labour on with our lives, carrying our Bibles to church on Sunday, screaming ‘amen’ and ‘alleluia’ when we pray.
Yet, it’s all meaningless. There are no Christians.
Jesus said that the ultimate commandment was to “Love one another.” When I was a little child I was told that the Good Samaritan was “good” because he stopped and helped a battered man (Luke 10:33). He showed love to a fellow human being. I remember also being told that faith without actions is dead (James 2:17). Jesus spoke of a love that was so powerful that it overcame all things, including fear.
My roommate did not take care of himself. The conclusion I come to is that he did not love himself. As Christians, many of us do not take care of the poor and oppressed. We therefore have no love.
I see so much fear in so many faces. I hear so much fear in so many voices. In my own heart I have fear. That means there is no true love. I have no true love. You have no true love. There are no Christians.
Put your Bible down my friend. Stop screaming those prayers. You are wasting your time. Without love all things are useless, wasted, lost, denied, defied, defiled and destroyed. Find love first. Show love first. The greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13: 13).
Show me one Christian who has love and maybe I will believe. Stand up against the great evils of the world and maybe I will believe. Do something thoughtful for a friend, a member of your family, a stranger, and maybe you will help to make someone else believe.
As for now, there are no Christians.
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“You say show me one Christian who has love and maybe I will believe”…Well maybe God’s plan/ intention is that you are that Christian. I agree with you though that being a follower of Christ is not merely about clutching a Bible, showing up at Church on Sunday and certainly not “screaming” prayers into the stratosphere. There is a place for the community of believers to fellowship and encourage one another but as you say there is a need to move beyond the ‘churchiness’. There is a real world out there and Christ did call upon us to be the salt and light of the world. I think sometimes we look for grand acts of ‘love’ (e.g feeding every orphan in Zim), ‘faith’ (i.e feeding those same orphans with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish) etc that we fail to realise that there is a God in the small things (my apologies to A. Roy). Just the other day, I was short of $2000,00 and was in a really tight spot. I needed to make a very urgent payment and my cash was short. A perfect stranger came from nowhere and gave me the balance. I didn’t ask him to but he did. To me that’s love and to me that’s someone displaying Gods mandate for us to love one another. Is the guy a Christian I don’t know but he certainly showed Christ like love. I’ve seen numerous examples of this type of thing. On a lighter note maybe your room mate was trying to be an extreme version of John the Baptist!
Your article has touched a number of things that I care about so my apologies for these lengthy comments. Your conclusion that there are no Christians is very scary and also about the fear and a desperately silent nation. Mmmmmmph! As indicated in my previous comment maybe there are Christians out there but they are not seeking attention to themselves and their actions. The second point though I think is accurate. Our churches are bursting to the seams because people are spiritually desperate, hungry, empty etc primarily spurred by a dire economic situation. Is this glut of faith a manifestation of a genuine desire to know God or simply a knee jerk reaction brought about by helplessness. I’m not sure I have the answer but I reckon that the ultimate test of the great Zimbabwean Christian show is how ‘Christian’ we are or will be in good times. My opinion (and I could be wrong) is that the main motivation is to find a God that fulfills our material aspirations. Not bad in itself, but I think for most it is an all consuming end in itself. Some Christians/ churches are consumed by a desire to demonstrate their ‘anointed’ status by the volume of signs and wonders that pour out of them which inevitable attract multitudes of followers. But once you remove the glitter, glamour, and charismatic veneer there is a shallowness to the worship experience. I don’t know about you but my yearning is for the full gospel experience: the Christ who entered Jerusalem on a donkey and was crucified a week later, the Christ who fellowshiped with prostitutes, tax collectors, outcasts and political rebels. The Christ who spoke truth to power and detested religious hypocrisy. The Christ who was filled with compassion by man’s sinful nature and his physical imperfections. I’m not sure that many of today’s ‘Men of God’ truly connect with the profound nature of this Christ. So maybe there are no Christians out there but for me the redeeming aspect of the Christian faith is it’s accessibility. Anyone can plug into this great God and get to know him as easily as the criminal on the cross. No gimmicks, no stunts, no razzmatazz, no incomprehensible babbling just an honest confession and a response by a compassionate God. It’s really that simple.
You raise a lot of points there Brian. Man, God Seeker, you must be really disillusioned. I wouldn’t exactly call myself the role model Xtian but I have my moments.
We are all imperfect and are seeking perfection through Christ. Yes, there are many hypocrites, but I believe there are many more out there who are honestly trying.
The issue Brian brings up about the situation in Zimbabwe causing Zimbabweans to fill churches is factual and many will be just in those pews because they are in trouble. The moment things change- they are gone.
But the great hope here is that for whatever reason you end up in a church, there is a chance that when you walk out you will want to return for a better reason.
O ye of little faith…Somewhere along the line, the so- called Zimbabwean Christian society began to to confuse God the Father, with the Godfather, and tithes became a lucrative way of buying favours (blessings) from God. They are like a latter day kind of protection fee from this Mafia- like deity, aren’t they?
The muscle was always there, every Sunday, putting the fear of the Godfather into all in attendance, and then flashing the rewards of the blessings (kickbacks for serving the Master well) …designer suits, fancy cars, etc…
Mammon had just performed a wonderful sleight of hand trick and could once again be worshiped, but this time putting himself forth as a Lamb.
The Jesus that Brian gets spot on, the one who rubbed shoulders with prostitutes, tax collectors, rode into what is now considered the holiest of Cities in Christiandom on a donkey, is depicted only once losing it completely. And that’s when he takes a whip to drive out the wheelers ands dealers of his time out of the church.
Using Christian lore, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discover that the Devil is one hell of a clever and deceitful dude…In our times, Lucifer has simply donned Christian apparel, learnt to talk the talk, and hey, presto, the moneychangers, traders- wheelers and traders- are back in the church, walking the high moral ground, with holier than thou stamped on their foreheads, and like the Pharisees, shrilly tring to outbid each other for “God’s” attention- but its alll nothing but show; a front that has to project perceived righteousness- more self righteous grand standing than anything else…
So when God Seeker sees what he/ she sees, says what she/he says, I am not surprised. The truth always will out. For many out there to be seen to be going to church every Sunday, or every other day, clutching that black book like a badge of approval and authority is more important than understanding the true meaning of the scripture contained within those pages. For many i they will ONLY start to live like Christians in the New Kingdom- this world they say, is not their home, they are just passing through….
But then did not Jesus say that there shall come a time when many will call out his name, and ask to be remembered for their allegiance to him, and he shall tell them that he knows them not? Does not one of the old prophets say that the Lord Christians purport to worship shall harden their hearts, close their minds and no matter how fervently they “devote” themselves to outward signs of worship and fellowship, the Truth and the Holy Spirit shall be hidden from them?
For those of us who are not Christians, who are sometimes afflicted by the self- righteous slander, left, right and centre, of those who deem themselves already saved, because many think that simply because we are not walking on the same road they are walking on we are lost, we simply shrug and watch. Actions speak louder than words, and in the face of precious little Christain- like acts from self- proclaimed Christians, God Seeker’s observation come as a breath of fresh air.
Perhaps those of you who see and are of the faith can start putting your house in order. I don’t think we need to remind you this, but does not your your Holy Book says it all- at the end of the day, each shall account for their time on this and be judged accordingly since each action and thought is recorded?
In an age of Church clothes and uniforms, many are prone to take off their Christianity as soon as they take off their Sunday best, and put it aside along with the clothes and bible until the next time they go strutting to the next sermon, crusade, whatever. But remember, each day we live and walk on this earth is a hymn of praise to the beauty and glory of creation, what is the nature of the verse you are adding?
Not only that Mupfudza, but many Christians have this “our church is better than yours” attitude. Some Pastors go to the extent of spending whole sermons trashing one Church or another. So even while we are wearing our Sunday best we are far from being Christian like.
God Seeker, your Christianity is about you and God. All these other things are inteference. You came into this world alone, you face your deepest fights alone, you will leave alone. All these other people- your room mate included- are a distraction from the real issue at hand- the relationship between you and Mwari wako.
Godseeker you raise a very valid point. RMufudza you really hammer it home especially in some areas I felt Godseeker was almost losing it. Some have called Godseeker disillussioned but the truth is this guy has been observant and frank about the state of christianity. Yes maybe there are some true Christians but today Christianity has become the best business or rather opportunities networking platform, its all about prosperity not love.
Matthew 25:40 says “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”. Note it says THE LEAST OF THESE BROTHERS, not the VIPs of these brothers. How many christians out there would devote their weekend to visiting strangers in prisons than attending the weekend crusade then watching pastor this-and-that on dstv……In fact today’s christian are very articulate in justifying why faith is more important than good deeds, especially to strangers “We are justified by faith is want Paul writes” is exactly how our christian brothers and sisters would justify why they dont take action. The basis of faith is embodied in the parable of the samaritan. Loving a stranger. How many take the time to attend to someone they dont know or even someone they know but is not “saved”. Today’s christianity is ineffective no wonder we have so many being saved but problems of this world increase.
Jesus told his disciples to do what the Pharisees preached but not what they did. At the end of the day, it is all about your personal relatonship with God not what you saw other people doing.
However, I do agree that the world would be a better place if all Christians led by example and showed love. There are Christians who do show love but in different ways like sharing a smile, offering a glass of water to a stranger, giving someone a lift to town, and perhaps just listening to what someone has to say.
Never underestimate the small acts of love because they make a world of difference to other people. Like Mahatma Gandhi once said, “BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE.” Take care
I suppose I was really feeling let down and disillusioned when I wrote this article but the fundamentals hold true. The Christians among us- those who claim to hold the banner that guides those who are on the threshold- leave a lot to be desired- Many of them at least.
Yes, as Brian says I could be that one Christian- one day. Right now I am seeking guidance so that I can reach a point where I can confidently lead others to God.
Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions.
Tough article. I agree to a large extent and I too feel that too many Christians pay lip service to their faith.