Curt Flewelling – FISM News
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Could the biggest stumbling block to becoming a Christian be… Christians?
A global study conducted by the Barna group came up with some sobering statistics when they asked teens how they viewed Christians. Among the most troubling results for believers was that only 31% of respondents viewed Christians as loving as opposed to 49% who viewed Jesus as loving.
The Barna Group is a research organization whose focus is on the intersection of faith and culture. Their latest poll reflects the thoughts of 25,000 teens in 26 countries.
The respondents were categorized as 22% committed Christians who profess a personal commitment to follow Jesus, 30% as nominal Christians who haven’t made a personal faith commitment, and 48% who identified as non-Christian.
“The gap between the number of teens who have positive perceptions of Jesus but negative perceptions of Christians is not surprising,” Barna Group CEO David Kinnaman said in a recent webinar. He added, “Especially as we look at non-Christians, there would be greater sort of gaps here the church has to look at.”
This would stand to reason. The much maligned and hackneyed phrase “love the sinner but hate the sin” is admittedly challenging to execute for believers but could well be next to impossible for a non believer to wrap their head around.
Challenging or not, Christians are charged to do just that. 1 John 4:21 says, “And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
Perhaps the best illustration of the conundrum Christians face when charged with loving the sinner but hating the sin can be summed by the great evangelist Warren Weirsbe, who famously penned these words: “Truth without love is brutality and love without truth is hypocrisy.”
Simply put, a respect for and an adherence to God’s word is of little value to the ambassador of Christ, if they don’t have a genuine love of their neighbor. Yet amidst this love, the word of God has to be revered and preached in an uncompromising yet loving manner.
The perception that Christians are unloving is unfortunate. At the end of the day, Christians would, or at least should, universally agree that they should be attracting people to Christ rather than repelling them from Him. Being more loving is a good place to start. 1 John 4:8 tells us, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”