Speak frankly with you who (like me) grew up in the church: it is possible to be a kind person without being a disciple of Jesus. You don’t have to be religious to be “good people. “
In other words: being a good person is not unique to Christianity, this point is demonstrated by two facts:
- 1.
- There are many bored people in the middle of Christianity.
- 2.
- I’m a lot of nice people outside Of Christianity.
For some, this is obvious
But I want to talk about you growing up in a context that fed (intentionally or not) the idea that it’s only IN THE EGLESA where you find respectful, welcoming, kind people who value values, as if they were from the church. They were just stupid people with no work ethic, no honesty, no compassion.
And then what happens is that a crisis appears in the life of the young member of the church, and ends up (1) being wounded by people within the church and (2) experiencing acceptance by people outside the church.
And then the young man comes to the conclusion: “Wow, I don’t need religion to be great. I don’t need religion to treat people well. “
And you don’t have to
I’ll open the game now so you don’t have to find out later: you don’t need to be a person of faith to be a person who treats others with dignity.
Listen: Jesus Christ came into this world not to please people.
Wasn’t it to save him? that Christ came into the world
Nowhere in the Bible is Jesus found saying to his disciples, “Go, be kind. “
Great already. What they needed was salvation.
Listen, please: the heart of the good news of the gospel does not speak of your relationship with your neighbor, it is about your relationship with God.
God presents Himself in the scriptures as holy, holy, holy, so holy that He does not tolerate what is contrary to holiness.
At the same time, we, both boring and genial, are presented to us in the scriptures as sinners.
We do not love the holiness of God, we want to tolerate a sin hidden here or there, we want to create our own version of what is acceptable and what is not.
The gospel raises the question: “How can the Holy Creator accept sinners?”
And the gospel gives us the answer: Jesus Christ, it is he who forgives, invigorates, and pleases the Father.
Being kind or boring doesn’t change who you are before God, it’s Jesus Christ who makes a difference.
Young Christian: you are surrounded by people created in the image of God, everyone has their own history, their struggle, their crisis.
Human beings are not exclusive to Christians, but only Christ can offer the rest that our soul yearns for.
You need Christ because he’s holy. In it, we have access to the Father, not a shortcut to be cool.