What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are! Matthew 23:15 (NLT)
We need to stop trying to fit Jesus into our cute little ideas of Him.
So many Christians seem to depict Jesus as a mild-mannered type of guy who walked around making the peace sign all day. But we’re not going to reach the world for Jesus if we keep portraying Him this way. That picture doesn’t appeal to our world, and it isn’t even accurate. Read our verse today and you’ll see that Jesus had no problem confronting people with truth!
Many people hold a picture of God that is inaccurate too. Some see Him as mean and judgmental while others picture Him almost like Santa Clause—a jolly old guy you don’t really take seriously. Meanwhile, our great big amazing God of the universe is so much more awe-inspiring than we could ever manage to comprehend!
Because of these misinterpretations, we’ve created a picture of the ideal Christian that is brutal. It’s repulsive to strong men and women who didn’t grow up in church. Most people get turned off by the thought of having to emulate the example of this inaccurate Jesus—a Jesus that discourages confidence and strength. They aren’t interested in becoming a wimpy, powerless, emotional kind of person who allows people to rip them off and attack their families!
To be truly Spirit Contemporary, you can’t believe in a tamed down version of Jesus. He wasn’t shy, wimpy and powerless. In reality, He was the most radical person to ever walk the planet, so if we are Christ-ians, there should be nothing mediocre about our lives.