peace . love . joy

What makes a Christian a "good" Christian?

Going to church weekly, participating in small group Bible studies, volunteering in church, doing our daily devotions, praying at least once every day, saying grace before meals, making sure we drop something into the offering bag as it goes by, saying the right things at the right times...

I don't think it's wrong to do all the above (and more!).

They are what I'd call the "outsides" of a Christian: they're what other people can see. We've a shop with an clear perspex glass front, those actions are our goods paraded in our glass display window, they're the first things shoppers see.

Nothing wrong with that. I'd reckon most of us know what to do so others will see and think we're "good" Christians. We know from exemplary deacons we see in church, we know from the Bible and the characters in the Bible, we know from the advice exhorted by certain Bible characters, we know what it means and we know what it takes to be "good". Great if we actually heed advice, emulate sound and mature teaching and teachers.

But here's where a sly problem can potentially sprout:

Are we all about the "outsides" that we forget the "insides"?
Is everything that is on display just for display?

If our Christianity is just about the "outsides, then, Houston, we have a problem.

Our Jesus is like Mushu from Disney's Mulan; He can see straight through our armours. Jesus sees both our "outsides" and our "insides"!

When He looks at us, what does He see?
Are we liable to be compared to manicured grave plots: grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it's all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh? That when people look at us, they think we're saints, but beneath the skin we're total frauds, full of hypocrisy and lawlessness?

Beautifying our "outsides" can bring about an inverse effect on our "insides".
How easy it is to slip down the muddy, slimy slope into the pit of pride!
When all that knowledge, all that "good" behavior, all that "holiness" gets to our heads, it's more than easy to become ever so proud of ourselves!

And we all know how God feels about a proud heart.

How easy it is also to tote all that lousy, smelly attitudes in one hand, and our Bibles in the other to church!

Rest assured, though, that God sees everything.
He sees our secret sins, our self-sufficient attitudes, our resentments, our selfish motives, our proud characters just as plainly as He sees the noses on our faces and the teeny tiny hairs that cover our bodies.

Maybe that's why Christianity is more than just the "outsides"; it extends its busy tentacles also into the invisible-to-the-naked-eye "insides". It is about the santification and transformation of our "insides", our spirits and souls, that brings about the inevitable change in our "outsides", the body and its works.

As Joe Stowell puts it, "it's not a facelift - it's a heart transplant!"

When God looks at you,
Does He see the termite-infested crumbling house as He did the pharisees in Matthew 23?

What do you think?

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5: 23