What Christians Get Wrong About Righteousness
By: Dena Write-Solutions
Tags: Christianity, Spirituality, Faith, Love, Religion

What Christians Get Wrong About Righteousness

and the Damage it Does

This article is going to upset a lot of people, and some of them will not be able to see that it comes from a place of love, but it does. I am tired of seeing first-hand the damage that Christians do to each other and non-Christians in the name of righteousness.

Many times throughout the Word, we are referred to as warriors. That part is true. The difference is, in any other war, when a brother falls on the battle-field, the other warriors rush to their side.

They try to drag them from harm. They circle the wounded and protect them from the enemy until help arrives. There are numerous stories of brothers and sisters in arms laying down their very lives to protect a wounded comrade.

Tell me, does this happen in your church? When a man gives in to temptation and one too many late-night drinks and commits adultery, do his fellow warriors gather around him in the aftermath? Do they surround him with prayer, support, and the word while he fights his battle to get right with God again and to put his family back together?

What about the young mom who ends up in rehab because she became addicted to the pain pills she started using for a legitimate medical problem, but Satan found his opening into her life, and she became addicted?

I am not talking about condoning their sin, excusing their behavior, or not holding them accountable for the hurts they have caused. I am talking about loving them anyway. I mean genuinely loving them and surrounding them with support instead of driving them from the fold with gossip, judgment, and condemnation.

No, we are the only warriors who pick up our breastplates of righteousness and attempt to beat our own wounded to death. Think about this. If this is how we treat our own wounded, how do we reach the walking wounded around us who are not saved?

I wish every Christian could speak to the souls that I do every week. They are broken people reaching out anonymously online for help with mental health issues. They reach out to me because I am a Christian, and “they used to go to church.”

They remember the faith they once had, but they were driven from their church homes when the enemy came against them, and they fell. They desperately want to hold on to what they once believed. But there is nowhere to feed them the gospel they are so hungry for because they fear the judgment, not from God, but other Christians. We have to do a better job of manifesting our faith.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

All. Have. Sinned. I know we want to think of our sins as little sins and the burdens of others as big sins, but there is nothing in scripture to support that thinking. Some of the most militant and determined atheists were once Christians. Sometimes they feel that God failed them, and from there concluded, there was no loving God. More often, it was the church that failed them.

It was formative years spent listening to sermons about sins like gossip and then listening to other Christians stand around in the foyer and gossip away about their church family. It was hearing about how God forgives our sins, but then being ostracized and judged when they fell into sin themselves.

I am a mature Christian. My faith has been tried by fire, and I know how short of grace I fall daily. I know that my brothers and sisters in Christ are just as fallible as I am.

No matter how compelling your testimony is for God, you can ruin its power in a moment by pettiness, or not honoring your word. In other words, when you can only be identified as a Christian because you call yourself a Christian, and not by how your actions speak, then there is a problem.

So, I have been asking myself the hard questions. Do I live like a Christian? If I never speak of my faith, will people still recognize something about me that is different? Is my life a fluid and living testimony to the power of Jesus Christ and His saving grace? Some of the honest answers sting. No, I do not always live as Jesus did. I get angry and frustrated, and when I do, I tend to make excuses for my bad behavior.

The checker at the grocery store who took forever to ring up my $35’ worth of groceries did not see a child of The King. She saw another sweaty, exhausted, frustrated customer who just wanted her to hurry up instead of returning her pleasant chit chat. I feel guilty for that and so many other things in my day to day life.

The meme that has circled the internet for years that says “Be the Change You Want to See in the World,” has never been more accurate. I refuse to be a part of the culture that is driving our young people out of the church in droves. This side of heaven, I will never be perfect. But, I will also never be the one beating a fallen warrior with my breastplate of righteousness.

I am learning a very valuable lesson. That breastplate of righteousness is a defensive weapon. It was crafted to protect me from the spears of the enemy. It is not an offensive weapon to beat up on the wounded around me.