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Should the world love or hate Christians?

by James Barringer  
5/01/2010 / Christian Living

Sometimes I find that the Bible seems to teach two contradictory things about the same topic. There aren't, of course, actual contradictions in the Bible, but it sure appears that way in a few instances. The most recent example of this is what the Bible teaches about how unbelievers will see Christians.

On the one hand, it implies pretty strongly that the world will hold a semi-permanent grudge against Christians. John records Jesus saying, "I have chosen you out of the world; that is why the world hates you" (15:19), and then in his own words writes, "Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you" (1 John 3:13). Peter speaks of persecution against the church similarly: "Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as if something strange was happening to you." Those quotes all seem to indicate that, for whatever reason, the world will always hate Christianity. We understand why. Jesus is a thorn in the flesh of culture. He tells us that our lives are not our own and that we all have an obligation to a higher power. We don't get to live however we want. It doesn't take much imagination to see why this is an offensive message to many people.

The problem is that the Bible also says the exact opposite several times, that people of the world should respect Christians, not hate them. Acts 2 lists the defining qualities of the first- century church, and one of them is, "they had the favor of all the people" (2:47). Paul, when he's explaining the qualifications for elder in 1 Timothy 3, goes even further: "He must have a good reputation with outsiders." That's right: if non-Christians don't think highly of you, then you're not qualified to be in church leadership. Being thought of well by the world is not merely commendable, but mandatory, a sure sign of a mature believer. How opposite this seems from the dire warnings of Jesus and Peter.

So which is it? Well, let's look first at the reasons the world should love us. The Bible tells us the two most important commandments to us as believers: "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself" (quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22). Dozens of times through the Bible it explains that this means helping people who are in need, feeding the poor, opening our own houses to the homeless (how many Christians do that?), and showering love on people in quantities too huge to imagine. Mother Teresa is a good example; who do you know that doesn't have a high opinion of her? If our faith is done right, it's magnetic. People respond to love. God designed us to do so. We should be the kind of people who, when the world looks at us, it says, "This planet is a better place because those Christians are a part of it."

Some of the Christians I know aren't actually hated because of Jesus. They're hated because they're loud, arrogant, and rude, and they use Jesus as an excuse to be those things. Sometimes they even use Jesus to defend opinions that Jesus wouldn't have had anything to do with. I'm thinking of a certain pastor who blamed homosexuals indirectly for the 9/11 attacks. He was grievously misquoted, but it was still a stupid, insensitive, and unchristlike thing to say. More recently there was another pastor who said that Haiti's earthquake in January of 2010 was God punishing them for a long-ago pact with the devil. Why are these people the leaders of our churches? Whatever happened to Paul's rule that people who wanted to lead Christ's church had to be well thought of by outsiders?

The trouble is that we really do bring a tough message to the culture. First of all, we come to tell them that their lives are not their own, that there is a God who has a claim on their lives, and that they are under an obligation to live a certain way because "right" and "wrong" are real. We do come with strong opinions on serious topics, things like the proper time and way to express sexuality, the role of men and women in the church and home, and other things that are connected to timeless truths and so run aground of a constantly-shifting culture.

Yet we can hold to these things without being obnoxious. We can believe very strongly a certain view about sexuality, yet still be kind, gentle, courteous, and loving to the people who disagree with us. They may still hate us because of our views, but they will respect us because even though we disagree, we still treat them with the love and respect they deserve as image-bearers of God. The world may hate you - but don't give them any additional reasons to. The world may hate you - but that does not free you up to hate them back, or to treat them with rudeness or arrogance. The world may hate you - but you are still bound to love them all unconditionally. And who can go on hating someone who loves them? Also, those strong opinions about serious topics are not Christianity. Christianity is the teaching that God loves everybody, that everybody sinned, and that everyone needs to be reconciled to God through Jesus' death and resurrection. If we find ourselves discussing the strong opinions and the serious topics more than we preach the gospel, we may very well be worshiping the opinions rather than God.

Now, many Christians go to the opposite extreme with this, and take a people-pleasing attitude toward the gospel. "Let's abandon all the things that people might possibly disagree with!" That's the wrong way to go about having people respect you. Respect from outsiders does not mean tossing aside all the difficult teachings about Christianity, because that leaves a person with some religion other than Christianity, a carefully-edited version of the Bible, and a God made in that person's own image. You may know of a certain smiling preacher who's very fond of talking about your best life, but never ever discusses sin, because "people don't like to hear about it." Zero-truth, all-tact. He's just as much in error as the all-"truth," zero-tact pastor talking about Haiti or homosexuals. If a person isn't stepping on the toes of culture at least a little bit, he's probably not teaching genuine Christianity, because our culture is so far off-base that the truth is going to contravene certain things they believe in.

One of the greatest compliments I've ever been paid was by an atheist who told me I was a Christ-like Christian. That's the essence of what I'm talking about here. We disagreed mightily, about pretty much everything, but that didn't give me freedom to start calling him names or accusing him of ignorance. I don't mean to toot my own horn here, only to demonstrate that it's possible to carry a message that the world hates, in a way that the world respects. Are you? Do you find yourself getting into a lot of arguments, trying to defend "truth," and finding that non-Christians don't respect you and don't want to be around you? Do you find yourself compromising what you believe in order to gain approval? Both of those are mistakes. The Biblical way is to believe in God's truth, to be a light that shines it with love and respect in a culture that may not receive your words but will always receive your love. I think Paul explains this tension best: "Show integrity...that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us." People will oppose you, because the world hates Christ, but they should also have nothing bad to say about you personally, because of our love for them. That's the sweet spot where we aim to live.

Jim Barringer is a 38-year-old writer, musician, and teacher. More of his work can be found at facebook.com/jmbarringer. This work may be reprinted for any purpose so long as this bio and statement of copyright is included.

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