“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?” Matthew 7:2
“So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us…” Ephesians 5:1-2
Here’s a truth we Christians need to hear: For many non-Christians, one of the biggest obstacles to becoming believers is not theological. The obstacle is not an inability to comprehend or believe the Christian salvation story. The biggest blockage in their path to faith is how they see the Christians around them acting. For we can be our own worst witnesses of faith.
Obviously, some people choose to believe in other faiths or in nothing at all. But the truth is, many people choose not to believe in the teachings of Christianity (or perhaps have left the faith of their childhood and family tradition) because they can’t see themselves as part of a group that so often preaches against its own core teachings of love and forgiveness by the way it acts.
As believers, the questions we must ask ourselves today are these: Are we imitating God and God’s church in a way that will draw others to faith? Are we loving and forgiving? Do we live with compassion and with the understanding that we are called to serve all, especially “the least of these?”
Or have we set ourselves up as judge and jury against those we perceive to be different? Do we project to others a faith that is characterized by false piety, superiority, hatred and intolerance? If so, we need to return to the basic teachings of Christ and begin to see where we have left them behind in pursuit of our own brand of holiness. For Christ does not live in our false piety, superiority, hatred and intolerance.
Our call, of course, is to a life of love, and any other approach to spreading a gospel of love and acceptance will surely fall on deaf ears. For without love, we have nothing to offer a world yearning to find meaning beyond itself. We are gonging bells and crashing cymbals. We are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
2 comments On Excuse me, but you seem to have a plank in your eye
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Your writing in “Living Faith” with your blogspot mentioned at the bottom of one of them, made me get on-line to check it out, though I hate being on the computer after a full-day of work on one. But anyway, may I just say thank you, first of all, for your writing. Secondly, you are an inspiration. I am myself a wanna be writer, and am a convert to Catholicism. Most Catholics don’t know what they have. Recently we’ve got some of our own inviting Episcopal ministers (female no less) to our parish. Ecumenical ventures are fine for what they are, but now that I have fully embraced the faith and God that was always trying to embrace me since I was baptized, I find I’m a bit offended by attempts to dilute or adulterate in any way, the Catholicism that wasn’t present when I was baptized (1991). My territorialism is borne of knowing where a diluted faith leads people–nowhere. Been there, done that. I like how your writing sounds inclusive yet orthodox, embracing yet boundary-setting as far as the faith goes. If you ever have time, I would love to hear if you’ve ever had a particularly strong faith conversion story (even cradle Catholics can have these, and need them really). Also, how you came to write for Living Faith is another thing I’d love to learn. At your leisure, of course. Thanks for the obvious evidence of your own living faith in the words you write. Keep up the good work.