What is genuineness worth? 

One of the attributes highly admired by young adults today is authenticity or genuineness.  However, the church has difficulty with the perception that it is hypocritical.  Indeed, hypocrisy is one of the primary accusations people of the world use to discredit Christianity and the Church. 

This begs the question: are people in the church hypocrites?  Yes, there are church people who are hypocrites.  Hypocrisy is having moral standards or beliefs that you do not conform to; for the Christian, that is close to the definition of sin. 

In the Christian Life, sin is defined as the willful transgression of the known law of God.  Or my preferred definition to willfully violate the will of God, which would include God’s known law.

So yes, the church is full of hypocrites, just as Alcoholics Anonymous is full of Alcoholics.  What I mean is we Christians who attend church are all sinners.  We have all fallen short of the glory of God and need forgiveness, which Christ grants to us when we believe in him and confess our sins to Him.  (See the YouTube video of last Sunday's service if you missed it.  Link = https://www.youtube.com/live/zlkZqgvq1_Y?feature=shared ) 

The question is, can we admit that?  Can we acknowledge that we hold a moral standard that is difficult to meet and that we struggle with?  What happens when we admit that the church and the people of the church are imperfect but are striving to be better, striving for perfection of love?  We become genuine.  It is genuine to say that we are imperfect but serve the perfect one.  We are flawed, but we seek to follow in the footsteps of the flawless one.  And in serving and following, we are being reformed into His likeness and His image and learning to love the way He loved.  And He loved the ones who were imperfect and flawed.  He spent time with the people who were known sinners and knew they were sinners, and he accused the religious people who thought of themselves as better than others because they strove to follow the law with rigor, “Hypocrites.” 

The difference between Jesus, who was perfect, and the Pharisees, who wanted to appear perfect, was authentic love.  Jesus genuinely loved the people who were outside the religious elite: the sinner, the average person, and those who were looked down on because of their flaws.  He spent time with them and demonstrated His love for them by how He treated them.

This is the model for evangelism; we need to get to know people outside the religious mainstream who don’t trust Christians.  We need to love and spend time with them so they can get to know an authentic Christ follower who is not perfect and knows it.  We need to be Christians who acknowledge that we are imperfect but are striving to be more like the perfect one and are learning to love as He loves.  Out of those relationships like this, a church can build a reputation for being authentic!  A church with a reputation like that can reach people who would never have entered a church before. 

So, what is genuineness worth?  It's worth The Kingdom!

See you Sunday!

Peace,

Burt