Dispensing with the Pleasantries

Spirituality Column #255
September 27, 2011
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Dispensing with the Pleasantries
By Bob Walters

“It’s unusual to meet a pleasant Christian.”

Ouchhhh … that one hurt. And it’s a statement, I hate to admit, that I found personally very convicting.

It was made on opening night of our Wednesday Bible study by our teacher George, who this fall is walking us through “Citizenship in Heaven: Philippians and Colossians.” George was introducing the early Christian church at Philippi, and noted how easy it was in that multi-cultural first century town of Jews, pagans and other religions to figure out who the Christians were.

Christians were the ones who were happy and non-judgmental. Christians brightened everybody’s day. Christians lived a loving life with the light of the Holy Spirit and the truth of Jesus Christ shining forth from every corner of their being. Christians supported each other, and cheerfully shared the Lord’s servant-attitude with all.

Even with the coming decades and centuries of purges as the Romans and others tried to stamp out Christianity, there was a larger-than-this-life spiritual positivism that spilled naturally from one Christian to another. Christianity survived the toughest of times because of the unusually complete humanity of its adherents, organized around history’s only perfect human, Jesus Christ. How do we know? The Bible tells us, and Church history backs it up.

These Christians didn’t try to trick or bully others into “accepting the Lord or else” because they had so much knowledge about Jesus. These early Christians simply loved others, cared for them, helped them, fed them and nurtured them, knowing that every human person has been created in the image of God the Father. These Christians were an example of God’s love for mankind both inside and outside the faith.

Our teacher George is one of the most cheerful, pleasant and learned Christians one could hope to encounter. He was making an important point about knowledge-based present-day Christianity, and what it is that makes Christians “Christians.”

A loving, servant heart is the core of who we are supposed to be as followers of Jesus, just as a loving, servant heart is the core of the human Jesus, incarnate among us, as the perfect example of divine love.

Whether in old Philippi or in these modern times, the example of Christ is an example of love. The measure of our Christian walk is not in strutting our knowledge, which tends to divide the world, but by exercising a Christ-like, selfless love, which always builds a more pleasant world.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that George’s class at E91 is free and open to the public. This fall (2014) he is leading a class on the Gospel of Luke.  Email Bob for more information.