By James Pyun

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” –Mahatma Gandhi

Jesus made it clear; the greatest commandments are to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And yet there are countless examples of Christians who dehumanize homosexuals, slander their fellow brothers and sisters, and ignore the poor — all in the name of Jesus. God is the God of justice, but he is also the God of love.

No clearer is this point made than in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Imagine someone horribly beaten in a dangerous neighborhood in the heart of the night, literally left for dead. It was not the proverbial pastor, nor the pious Christian who offered his help; they ignored the situation altogether as they passed by. It was a social outcast, the type no one expects to associate with Christians no less, who not only tended to the victim’s wounds, but made sure everything was taken care of, right down to the outstanding hospital and medical costs.

Do we see this today, this kind of Christ-like love being expressed by Christians? Are we expressing our love for Christ to others to the fullest?

Why is it that Christians do not act like Christians? I believe the answer can be found in Matthew 25:31-46, when Jesus separates the saved from the damned by how they treat, “the least of these brothers of mine,” people that society today demonize, marginalize and reject. If you think you are saved, think again. Likewise, if you think you are hell bound, you most likely are not.

It goes deeper than that, though. Why are you a good person? Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the greatest opponents of Christianity, yet one of the most insightful minds humanity has ever seen, called out the most moral people as having the most immoral, most evil basis for being the way they are, doing good things for selfish, unedifying reasons. But in Matthew 25:37, the righteous are almost clueless, lacking a record as to when they did such edifying things, while in Matthew 25:44, the wicked have kept a record of their good works, as if they deserve to be rewarded.

Imagine then, a whole conglomeration of people who claim to believe in Jesus, but show behaviorisms exhibited by the wicked in verse 44. It is not difficult to see what kind of disaster can result when people constantly vie for approval, deep down, harboring hateful thoughts of each other. And when the inevitable occurs, when people’s feelings are put out in the open, Christianity is exposed as a pitiful fraud that people today continue to criticize and look down upon.

Jesus Christ did not stand for any of this. To all believers reading this, whether you realize you are one or not, remember, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” At no point was Jesus ever in a “comfort zone’” during his three years in a “comfort zone” during his three years of ministry, and certainly not on the Cross, his ultimate act of healing. Being a child of God is a privilege, and yet a burden. To those who think that the life of a Christian is a cakewalk, please consider we too are human and prone to make mistakes, mistakes that are magnified because of our beliefs and the high standard we are held to.

“With great power, comes great responsibility.” -Ben Parker

After all, Spiderman wasn’t exactly perfect, though he was quite the cool superhero.