Self-righteousness vs Humility

[2PhiloVoid]

Hello.
I’ve been to many many churches and met many Christians. Why is it that 99% of Christianity or more is the opposite of Jesus’ teaching?

... where's this 1% who does it right? I'm eager to meet them!

 

[grasping the after wind]

Hello.
I’ve been to many many churches and met many Christians. Why is it that 99% of Christianity or more is the opposite of Jesus’ teaching?

I don't see how you can come to that conclusion as Christianity is so diverse at least a small percentage might, even by accident, get a bit right. Could you be more specific? Give some examples of where you find all of Christianity to be almost completely opposite of Jesus' teaching.

 

[grasping the after wind]

Christ left a clear teaching as described in the Gospels.

Christianity has forsaken the teaching of Jesus

Are you saying this self righteously or in all humility? If your point was more in line with the headline than what you posted to start things off, I think you may have hit the mark seeing the tone of some of the posts above. Christ taught us to be humble and to love our neighbor no matter what they might think or do even if they consider us their enemy. Calling out other Christians as less pure in their motives or more lax in their fealty to the teachings of Christ than ourselves could well be construed as the opposite of His teachings.

 

[grasping the after wind]

in every way possible… They have put Him aside and created their own ideology that uses His name to proclaim what He never supported or even opposed

The word "specific" has a clear meaning.

 

[com7fy8]

I’ve been to many many churches and met many Christians.

It helps to know someone who is a good example of what to do about the fact that many church people are wrong and false. You need to become an example like such caring people so your example can help those who are wrong.

Jesus came in order to reach wrong people . . . and Jesus is so superior and better than everyone, yet Jesus is not at all conceited about this! But Jesus left Heaven itself in order to reach us and save us. He could personally relate with wrong people and help us to get real correction.

But there are people who want to believe there is no hope for wrong people; and so they only are able to find the ones who are wrong, because of their own magnet in their own character making them able to only find what is wrong.

But love "hopes all things," we have in 1 Corinthians 13:7. Jesus has hope for any wrong person, no matter how impossible he or she is in hypocrisy and pride and fooling one's own self with conceit.

So, instead of only criticizing wrong people, have compassion for them; then you can connect with Jesus and discover how He is, plus connect with others who are loving any and all people while sharing as Jesus' family. But you can't do this only by looking, but by what needs to be cooking - - - in our character

 

[James_Lai]

... where's this 1% who does it right? I'm eager to meet them!

Yes there’s a tiny minority who do get it

 

[James_Lai]

The word "specific" has a clear meaning.

It’s very specific

 

[James_Lai]

It helps to know someone who is a good example of what to do about the fact that many church people are wrong and false. You need to become an example like such caring people so your example can help those who are wrong.

Jesus came in order to reach wrong people . . . and Jesus is so superior and better than everyone, yet Jesus is not at all conceited about this! But Jesus left Heaven itself in order to reach us and save us. He could personally relate with wrong people and help us to get real correction.

But there are people who want to believe there is no hope for wrong people; and so they only are able to find the ones who are wrong, because of their own magnet in their own character making them able to only find what is wrong.

But love "hopes all things," we have in 1 Corinthians 13:7. Jesus has hope for any wrong person, no matter how impossible he or she is in hypocrisy and pride and fooling one's own self with conceit.

So, instead of only criticizing wrong people, have compassion for them; then you can connect with Jesus and discover how He is, plus connect with others who are loving any and all people while sharing as Jesus' family. But you can't do this only by looking, but by what needs to be cooking - - - in our character

My question is why it happens so. Why do people reject Christ and create a pretence religion that ignores Him? It’s really sad to observe

 

[James_Lai]

Are you saying this self righteously or in all humility? If your point was more in line with the headline than what you posted to start things off, I think you may have hit the mark seeing the tone of some of the posts above. Christ taught us to be humble and to love our neighbor no matter what they might think or do even if they consider us their enemy. Calling out other Christians as less pure in their motives or more lax in their fealty to the teachings of Christ than ourselves could well be construed as the opposite of His teachings.

Yes. I was just in a big pretty successful church on Sunday and everything start to finish so seemed to be against Jesus Christ. So it dawned on me, the whole Christianity is not listening to Christ, coz this is what I see wherever I go. I felt deeply disappointed. Why even bother claim Christ? Remove Him from church and nothing will change, coz He’s not there to start with.

Very, very few people chose to listen to Christ

 

[James_Lai]

I also go to mosques, Buddhist temples, Sikh cultural centres, Hinduist temples, synagogues etc etc

Interested in all kinds of faith. Had very strong interest in Christianity, but came to a clear realization that Christianity and Christ have gone their two separate ways

 

[com7fy8]

Why do people reject Christ and create a pretence religion that ignores Him?

You can have quite an adventure getting to actually know each person who does this. Each one is unique.

It can be lazy to only look at people from a distance and not find out what really is going on with each one.

But, of course, we need to keep attentive to God so we do not get tangled and mangled in dealing with wrong people. So, we need to be wise about how we approach getting to know people . . . and be efficient so this does not tie us up from God and loving as His family with ones who are His children.

I would say there can be a variety of reasons why ones use the church culture for something other than Jesus.

Ones at the top can be after money. But others can suppose they can use the church culture to save people and change the world to what they themselves are dictating needs to be done.

Right now there is a major project to promote Israel . . . politically. And to me it seems ones are misrepresenting the place of worldly Israelites in God's plan and priority for our attention. And in the United States church culture is being used to harvest votes, by saying America has been a Christian country.

And there are undercover prostitutes who fish for customers in churches, and there are miserable and ruined people who are trying to find "love" in churches by getting sexually involved with people they find there.

And there are type-A personality people who want to just make things happen, while they are getting wasted and stressed out trying to make appearances happen . . . of humanitarian and ministerial sorts . . . making results happen, but not with deep change into Jesus Christ's "rest for your souls." (in Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus does guarantee that many people will be deceived, right?

So, I am human, too. So . . . how could it "be me"?

I can still fool myself into thinking I am smarter than everyone else in God's word. I can be very self-congratulating and looking down on others, criticizing instead of having compassion and feeling for others and having hope in prayer for ones who are wrong or seem to be. So, thank You, God, for showing me that I have a problem with this, and thank You for ones who are a good example of how to love and not conceitedly welcome excuses to look down on other people.

We can want to be God, and we can want to use others to get what we want; and church culture can put us with people, like in a supermarket where we can shop for whoever we want to try to use. But love does not have us only using anyone; but in church culture we can hear God's word and learn how to love

 

[James_Lai]

... where's this 1% who does it right? I'm eager to meet them!

I also met some who I think belonged to this 1% and who later changed completely for the worse. I don’t know, maybe they were never fully in it, or maybe they did change. But it’s just this change is very huge, drastic 180deg

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I also met some who I think belonged to this 1% and who later changed completely for the worse. I don’t know, maybe they were never fully in it, or maybe they did change. But it’s just this change is very huge, drastic 180deg

Sure. You have a point. Hypocrisy is a huge problem.

But at the same time, by all that we find written in the New Testament (and even in consideration of what we find in the Old Testament), would we really expect any one Christian person to be able to live an entire life without some kind of moral fault that everyone else can clearly point out and cite?

I KNOW I have faults... ...

 

[James_Lai]

You can have quite an adventure getting to actually know each person who does this. Each one is unique.

It can be lazy to only look at people from a distance and not find out what really is going on with each one.

But, of course, we need to keep attentive to God so we do not get tangled and mangled in dealing with wrong people. So, we need to be wise about how we approach getting to know people . . . and be efficient so this does not tie us up from God and loving as His family with ones who are His children.

I would say there can be a variety of reasons why ones use the church culture for something other than Jesus.

Ones at the top can be after money. But others can suppose they can use the church culture to save people and change the world to what they themselves are dictating needs to be done.

Right now there is a major project to promote Israel . . . politically. And to me it seems ones are misrepresenting the place of worldly Israelites in God's plan and priority for our attention. And in the United States church culture is being used to harvest votes, by saying America has been a Christian country.

And there are undercover prostitutes who fish for customers in churches, and there are miserable and ruined people who are trying to find "love" in churches by getting sexually involved with people they find there.

And there are type-A personality people who want to just make things happen, while they are getting wasted and stressed out trying to make appearances happen . . . of humanitarian and ministerial sorts . . . making results happen, but not with deep change into Jesus Christ's "rest for your souls." (in Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus does guarantee that many people will be deceived, right?

So, I am human, too. So . . . how could it "be me"?

I can still fool myself into thinking I am smarter than everyone else in God's word. I can be very self-congratulating and looking down on others, criticizing instead of having compassion and feeling for others and having hope in prayer for ones who are wrong or seem to be. So, thank You, God, for showing me that I have a problem with this, and thank You for ones who are a good example of how to love and not conceitedly welcome excuses to look down on other people.

We can want to be God, and we can want to use others to get what we want; and church culture can put us with people, like in a supermarket where we can shop for whoever we want to try to use. But love does not have us only using anyone; but in church culture we can hear God's word and learn how to love

Yes… I think, and I might be wrong of course, that the bottom line is Jesus wants a lot of us… It’s clear as day what He wants, most people if not all don’t really want to go that path. They want a convenient way where they do what they want all the while pretending - sincerely or knowingly - that they’re following Jesus. This is pretty appalling to observe

 

[James_Lai]

Sure. You have a point. Hypocrisy is a huge problem.

But at the same time, by all that we find written in the New Testament (and even in consideration of what we find in the Old Testament), would we really expect any one Christian person to be able to live an entire life without some kind of moral fault that everyone else can clearly point out and cite?

I KNOW I have faults... ...

Yes. But overall it’s not about a fault or faults. It’s about following Jesus Christ. Coz you either do or you don’t. There can’t be middle ground. Christianity as a whole it seems to me is nothing but a method to ignore Jesus while making Christians think they are following Him… It’s not a good position. To be in such position, something has to break in your soul fundamentally, one can’t be in such position and remain in sincere and pure soul… I witness it all the time and even for me it’s extremely painful to observe, though I’m not affected myself…. Islam, in my opinion, is a more straightforward faith, though not free from a similar issue.

I listen to what Jesus says, then I come to church and I do not find people echoing that in faith and in practice, if you understand what I mean…

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Yes. But overall it’s not about a fault or faults. It’s about following Jesus Christ. Coz you either do or you don’t. There can’t be middle ground. Christianity as a whole is nothing but a method to ignore Jesus while making Christians think they are… It’s not a good position. Islam, in my opinion, is a more straightforward faith, though not free from a similar issue.

Sure. I understand. We're either 'really' following Jesus or we're not. But if we're stuck in an Existential clutch, then why wouldn't the inconsistencies be expected and be known to come in a matter of degree?

Personally, I'm not seeing that Jesus is calling us to perfection in this life ... even if some folks tend to [mis]interpret Jesus' reported imperative to "Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect."

No, various levels of moral failure are to be expected. And even Islam cannot withstand this existential obviousness of human nature.

 

[James_Lai]

... where's this 1% who does it right? I'm eager to meet them!

And giving you a concrete answers to your rhetorical question - they are few and far in between. I’ve been to many churches and many countries on 5 continents and I did meet such people. No, they aren’t saints and without faults. Not about that. It’s about accepting Jesus teaching as is. Often those people are not prominent or not even in church… But you detect their light immediately and without fail.

 

[James_Lai]

Sure. I understand. We're either 'really' following Jesus or we're not. But if we're stuck in an Existential clutch, then why wouldn't the inconsistencies be expected and be known to come in a matter of degree?

Personally, I'm not seeing that Jesus is calling us to perfection in this life ... even if some folks tend to [mis]interpret Jesus' reported imperative to "Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect."

No, various levels of moral failure are to be expected. And even Islam cannot withstand this existential obviousness of human nature.

True. Morality aside, there’s the fundamentals. They are ignored because they’re extremely inconvenient. It’s too radical. If 2 Billion people (or whatever the current global stats are) truly followed Jesus, today we’d live in a whole different society.

So it’s not about the problem of the unattainable moral perfection and the hard realities of life vs idealist expectations. It’s simple. Do you or do you not accept and follow. Coz singing hymns or praying before meals is nice but it’s not at all what Jesus was about

 

[BNR32FAN]

Hello.
I’ve been to many many churches and met many Christians. Why is it that 99% of Christianity or more is the opposite of Jesus’ teaching?

Can you be more specific? What do you consider to be the opposite of Jesus’ teachings?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

True. Morality aside, there’s the fundamentals. They are ignored because they’re extremely inconvenient. It’s too radical. If 2 Billion people (or whatever the current global stats are) truly followed Jesus, today we’d live in a whole different planet.

Right. And there's also a lot that goes into "knowing" (thinking, really) that the bible is true in the first place, along with the existential angst of actually dealing with real pain in this seemingly God forsaken world.

Wouldn't you agree? So, existentially speaking, why be surprised? Both existential experience AND the contents of the Bible suggests that we keep our expectations of Christian behavior within a sober view. Sometimes we can be more charitable to other's failings; sometimes we can legitimately scrutinize them with rigor instead.