I have a neighbor who lives next door to me. He calls himself a Christian, but I'm not so sure about that at times. You see, he says all of the right things when asked, but I see how he acts and I hear how he talks when nobody else is around. I sometimes wonder why God would ever listen to him when he prays. I mean, he says and does some pretty rotten things at times.
I know many of the people who attend his church. They seem - for all intents and purposes - to have their lives together. There's a clear indication that these people are truly following their beliefs with all of their hearts. They smile, they're compassionate, and it seems as though they really love their God.
There's a lot of happy Christian couples in his church who show up every week and really seem to work well together. They're committed to each other, and to their faith. They sit next to each other at church, intently listening to whatever the lesson may be, and then really appear to put what they've learned into practice.
But my neighbor? Not so much. I've seen him at his church. Often times, he looks really distracted, as if there's a million things on his mind that are drawing him away from learning anything. And while everyone else stands up to sing, he looks around the room, half-heartedly mouthing the words to the songs without really considering their meaning. His heart just isn't into it.
In fact, on the surface, it looks as though he sits through the service every week, then immediately forgets what he was taught as soon as he hits the door and comes back home. He agrees that what he's being taught is true while he's sitting there, but then lives out his daily life in complete opposition to what he knows he should be doing................What a horrible hypocrite this guy is.........I gotta tell ya, he really disgusts me at times. I mean, how can this guy even call himself a Christian???
Yeah, the more more closely I watch him, the more convinced I am that he's not a Christian, and the more convinced I am that God wouldn't possibly want to hear what he has to say. I'd be willing to bet that he spends a lot of time "praying to the ceiling," because there's no way that God hears him. I mean, why would He even bother? Furthermore, I don't see any way that God could possibly use him - being the person he is.
Do you think I'm being too hard on him? Do you think I'm being far too critical? Well, I have to disagree with you whole-heartedly. In fact, If you'll let me, I'd like to point out why my thinking is absolutely biblical, and why I am absolutely on the right track when I condemn him right where he stands.
I'm simply following Jesus' directions in Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
You see, this isn't really about my neighbor.........it's about me.
Did the light bulbs just go off??.......You see, if I truly "loved my neighbor as myself," while at the same time listening to the self-talk that sometimes goes on within my own mind, I wouldn't think very highly of him, would I?
I've heard it said that if we had a friend who talked about us the way we talk about ourselves within our own minds, we wouldn't be friends with that person for very long.
We tend to condemn ourselves right where we stand on many occassions. How can we possibly love our neighbors as ourselves while we're continually condemning ourselves in our own minds? That shouldn't be. The only way we can possibly love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do so in the way God intended us to is if we first remember these words:
"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." - Romans 8:29-34
It's been said that before we can love others, we have to first learn to love ourselves. Those are very true words, but not from the perspective of thinking we're somehow better than or superior to others. Before we can truly love others the way that God intended, we have to believe that God loves us just as we are. Does that mean we shouldn't always strive to be better? Not at all. But right where we stand today, just as we are today, God loves each and every one of us more than we could possibly imagine.
Don't ever let your own negative self-talk prevent you from believing that.
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