What Are You Doing More Than Others?

As Jesus challenged His followers in the Sermon on the Mount, “What are you doing more than others?” (Mt. 5:48). Jesus’ intent was that the lives of His followers should be defined in dramatically different terms than the world around them. But is this really the case today? Line up ten strangers on the street and ask them, “What actions characterize Christians compared to those who are not Christians?” Responses will vary, from “they go to church” to “they pray before they eat.” Some answers might have political connotations: “they oppose abortion” or “they are against homosexuality.” Some answers may be downright negative: “they judge others more than most.” In the public’s eye, these are the types of things that define a Christian.

Though most of us have never attempted such an experiment, we instinctively know that these answers would characterize our findings. Jesus has called his followers to live radically, to “turn the world upside down” with their love for others and for one another. Yet to many outsiders, believers today are known not as passionate lovers but as right wing activists and members of a Sunday morning social club. But it was never Christ's intention that His church should be a people just like everyone else save for their political leanings and church attendance. The very essence of our very lifestyles should run in marked distinction to the rest of the world around us. Yet sadly, this is not the case for most believers today.

As the King James Version puts it in I Peter 2:9, followers of Christ should be “peculiar people.” That doesn’t mean we should weirder than the surrounding world, but that quite simply, our lifestyles should be different. Look at any Christian’s day planner and ask yourself how it differs from your average non-churchgoing suburbanite. Many of the calendar entries will be the same: work, soccer practice, music lessons, perhaps even a date night on weekends. In the vast majority of cases, in fact, the day timer will look exactly the same as nonbelievers except for one exception: church. Add Sunday morning church attendance, small groups at the church, midweek prayer meeting, and youth group activities, and the already harried schedule of the average suburbanite is ratched up to superhuman levels for the Christian. Nearly all Americans will admit they’re too as it is, but it seems that far too many Christians seem to believe that honoring God means continuing more of the same and adding church on top of it all. If the “life in all of its fullness” that Jesus intended for us means merely adding church events to the world’s overbooked schedule, that is a sad state of affairs indeed.

Face it: our lifestyles look exactly the same as the world’s, and this is beyond dispute. As Shane Claiborne says, “Christians pretty much live like everyone else; they just sprinkle in a little Jesus along the way.” However, the early church stood in marked contrast to the world around them; the difference in lifestyle between those early believers and the pagan culture around them was evident to all.

In our next post, we will turn our attention to the early church as we seek to understand what the church should be known for today.