When the Christians are for sale, the world burns!

One of the weirdest encounters that I had was when I met up with a “Christian” healthcare worker the summer that I was doing make-up internship duties. We had snacks at a restaurant near the Philippine General Hospital, and talked about life after college. This friend was quite active in leading church discipleship groups. Naturally, I told them about how much I lacked sleep because of all the paperwork. They then boasted, “Since I started working, I’ve never had to submit a report on time!” They told me that they had papers that were 6 months past their due dates, and that they didn’t prepare for patient care anymore.

I was appalled at how brazen my friend was. You’d think that someone claiming to follow Christ would be a good model of ethical practice. Nevertheless, I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to sound sanctimonious over merienda.

Unfortunately, there are many professing Christians like that. They’re active in all sorts of church ministries, yet fail spectacularly at their jobs and in their relationships. Why is that?

Modern-Day Pharisees

First of all, there are many fake Christians. While that may seem like a copout, it’s true that there are many false brethren inside local churches. They think that they’re Christians just because they prayed the Sinner’s Prayer. Some think that they are true Evangelicals because their parents are. Many claim to follow Christ because they wrongly believe that Christianity will boost their self-image. Their false profession of faith becomes evident when their lifestyles contradict God’s Word.

Unfortunately, true Christians also fall short of God’s standards. One reason for this is our inability to attain perfection in this life. Thus, following Christ is a journey that consists of many struggles to overcome one’s sins. The difference is that the Christian will have a lifestyle of repentance until he bears the fruit of Christlikeness in varying degrees.

One of the obstacles to becoming more like Jesus is Pharisaism, the attitude of superiority that comes from overemphasizing certain truths or traditions at the expense of other Biblical virtues. A common example would be the militancy towards evangelism. Surely, it is every believer’s duty to share the Gospel. However, the emphasis on evangelism becomes toxic when Christians think that they’ve attained a higher level of spirituality than their brethren because they adhere to a certain style of proselytizing that doesn’t resonate with other believers. Because they feel superior, they think that they now have the right to dictate how everyone should do ministry.

Worse, they feel entitled to maltreat both Christians and non-Christians because of their evangelistic endeavors. They abuse their families, neglect their jobs, exploit their employees, or ignore the community’s needs because concerns outside of the ministry are allegedly carnal. They say, “Why excel at work when all that matters is that people don’t go to hell? Why take care of the poor when we’re just waiting for the Rapture?”

The Pharisaical attitude is also quite evident in the United States primaries. Many Christians rightfully wish to elect politicians that will fight the culture war, which is about issues like abortion and gender ideology. But why are they trashing the candidates who want to stop warmongering? Why use lawfare against those who oppose corporations that hire illegal aliens for cheap labor? Why stop people from exposing how the US is outsourcing jobs to foreign governments that commit genocide? Aren’t those sins too? What’s up with the selective sense of justice?

The Root of All Evil

When you strip down all that annoying veneer of sanctimony, one will discover that money is either the primary or the secondary cause of much of Pharisaical behavior. The obsession with the ministry or with cultural issues are merely the smokescreen, a distraction from the embarrassing truth that our principles have price tags. Perhaps the professing Christians are profiting from imposing their extrabiblical traditions on others. Maybe their political donors want to start World War III. In the case of my friend, I guess they wanted easy money so that they could focus on their ministry that they deemed more spiritual than healthcare. The list of Pharisaical sins that stem from the love of money is endless!

Now I’m NOT saying that faith in Christ is ineffective in changing a person. As I’ve said, true Christians will be transformed for the better in varying degrees in ways that they never could’ve done on their own without Jesus' saving grace. But because we’re far from perfect, we must be vigilant about succumbing to greed and hypocrisy.

I went through that phase when I was in college. During my late teens, I deceived myself into treating the ministry as more important than studying because I couldn’t stand the fact that my classmates’ grades were better than mine. I just wanted to graduate on time because — you guessed it — I wanted to earn money right away.

Thankfully, my graduation was delayed for a year. I got to reflect on how my worldview became pietistic with the time that I had. More importantly, I discovered how dissecting cadavers and testing different interventions all revealed different aspects of God’s character. There was no more divide between sacred and secular, because “everything is for Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory” (Romans 11:36).

If I remember it correctly, I even got back into the Dean’s List when I attained a new love for studying. That experience is one of the many reasons why I know that God will change Christians for the better no matter how difficult the journey may be.

(Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20)