The Lies We Tell Ourselves

I'd venture that one of the biggest lies the church has ever bought into is "the ends justify the means." This is not touted as a fundamental core belief of any church but an underpinning philosophy throughout church culture, and when you take a careful examination, you can see it in practice. I hear it in advocating for actions Jesus would never support to bring about Kingdom goals. I see it in the undercurrents of justification that the outcome allows us to ignore the unhealthy methodology, or worse teaches us to repeat dangerous and hurtful practices. I feel its weight in the discussions I've had where people entirely miss the point and develop strange justifications with poor biblical exegesis to produce thoughts that align with what they want over what God is calling us to.

Below are some real-life discussions I've had with friends about various topics. Here are some examples as to where I've seen this lie permeate our discussions and practices:

"God was working, so what we were doing has to be good and righteous."

I have encountered variations of this routinely throughout my seminary years and hear it still while in ministry. The basic premise is that if God worked in people's lives or anything good happened, then how it was accomplished is worth repeating. It's akin to a superstition that sports fans know well: they have to keep the same game-day tradition, or else their team will lose that game. It's adding causality where there shouldn't be any. The problem with this whole lie is it creates some massive blindspots where you ignore some severe flaws that could be dangerous and hurtful. I've been to youth nights where there has been extreme manipulation to get kids to decide to follow Jesus that night, but since they said yes, it's ok. I've heard people support a church service that was breaking the law and putting people in danger, but because God moved in people, then it's got to be good. I've heard people tout hateful and harmful theologies, but it kept others from making some poor decisions, so it's righteous. In a results-driven ministry, you can quickly lose sight of Jesus and the people He has called us to love.

"Why would it matter about the leader's character when they fight for Christian values." I don't wonder anymore why we keep running into leadership scandals and stories of abuse of power in the church. We overlook major flaws and justify everything in the name of "the bigger battle." We see an effective leader who can attract new people to the church, so we adapt to his abusive and controlling culture. We have a brilliant apologetic theologian who has helped so many people find answers to their questions about faith, but his work shouldn't be tainted by his routine abuse of women. We have a world leader who is touted as being "the most pro-Christian world leader" as he fights for things Christians care about (like abortion), but his character looks absolutely nothing like Jesus, yet we praise him. We endorse leaders not because of who they are but because of what they can do for us.

"I cherish peace with all of my heart. I don't care how many men, women and children I kill to get it." Ok, so this one is a movie quote from a character called "peacemaker" in the new Suicide Squad. Still, it's an excellent verbalization of many conversations I've had. I'd like to think we can all agree that Jesus calls us to peace; God's desire for us is for the world to be at peace (I've learned this isn't the case with many Christians as well). However, even if we agree that the goal is peace, we have lost sight that the message also must be the medium. The message of love and peace from Jesus has to be delivered in love and peace. The lie that it is ok to kill to save lives is not the way of Jesus (I will do series on this). The rationalization that trading one life for another life (or lives) is dangerous and not the calling of Christians. It perpetuates an us-vs-them mentality and devalues the person being killed as less than an image-bearing creation of God whom He loves.

"Following Jesus is a life of rainbows and unicorns/Following Jesus means he will bless you with a mansion and lots of wealth." We sugarcoat, twist, or straight up lie about the Gospel to get people to buy into what we're selling - we think we're making the message more palatable. Jesus doesn't need a new PR strategy; the church does. When we change the message or only deliver part of it, we attract many people following a poor imitation of Christ. We get people in the door who are fans of and equipped with knowledge of Jesus, but our call is to make life-long disciples. This is the danger that churches fall into when they play the numbers game. While numbers tell a part of the narrative and are helpful, we often get obsessed with numbers. We often feel this need to prove to others what we're doing is good, especially those who support our ministry financially. We desperately want people to follow Jesus so much that we don't set them up correctly to make an informed decision.

These are just a few examples of things I have personally encountered, and I'm sure the list would be exhausting to note all the areas this lie has permeated into our world. These justifications have poisoned and will continue to stain the perception of Christianity if we live in a results-driven ethos. While we need to note successes and what works (and what doesn't), we still need to filter our process. Where we're going is often just as important as how we're getting there. We know that God can and still does work through our faults, that He still defaults to choosing to partner with us. That is more a showing of the grace and compassion from God than something we should create a methodology around. God can redeem poor theology, hurtful practices, selfish actions, misguided motivation, and that is just with me personally on any given day. Justifying our actions for what we think is the greater good is a very tempting trap to fall into. Still, often that's what makes it that much more dangerous as we don't see what we are doing and the harm it creates until it is too late.

As Christians, we follow Jesus. Our lives are an apprenticeship in the ways of Christ. Our goal in all we do should be to resemble Christ, acting like Him as we follow His teachings and imitate His character. We are called to imitate Him in everything He did and taught (1 Peter 1:15-16, 2:21, 1 John 2:6, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Ephesians 5:1-1). Simply put: A "Christianity" where the motivations and actions do not line up to imitate Christ is not Christianity. The WWJD people had it right the whole time: our permeating filter needs to be "What Would Jesus Do?" While there is room for interpretation and different expressions of many things in the Christian faith, agreeing on imitating Christ needs to be a base and uncompromising core position. Christ is our example, our ultimate authority, our teacher, our master, our Lord, our Saviour. The only thing we need to pursue is being more like Him in all that we do.