“I don’t go to church because it is full of hypocrites.”

I hear that line all the time. You probably do too. You may have said it yourself. It typically comes from people that have had some exposure to the Church. You grew up going to church. You accepted Christ as a teenager. Your grandparents were faithful Baptists. But somewhere, somehow, something went wrong.

You were mistreated.

You were offended.

You were hurt.

You were beat.

All in the name of Jesus. All by people who loved Jesus.

The only logical conclusion to these actions is that the Church is full of people who say they follow a loving Savior, but are anything but loving themselves. Your mind is made up. Jesus makes no difference. Jesus can’t help me. The Church is full of people who say one thing, but do another. So you resist faith.

I understand this resistance. It is difficult to enter into a faith whose followers don’t mirror the Savior. However, your resistance may not come from an improper view of the Church. It may come from an improper view of God.

If you are resistant to faith because what you see from Jesus in the Bible and what you see from His followers are two different things, there is a chance that you think have you to get everything together before you can come to God so you don’t become a hypocrite. You know that you aren’t perfect, and you don’t want to become what you hate. If that is the case, Jesus has become a cosmic school teacher to you; rewarding those who do well and punishing those who do poorly. Jesus is not a school teacher. He is the Savior.

Jesus makes it clear that he wants to restore us. He wants to take the imperfect parts of us – the pieces that are broken, messed-up, off track – and work to make those things right. The community that God is building called the Church is not made up of people who are already perfected – it is made up of people who have declared their need for the Savior and are being transformed by him! The Church is not a social club for the already perfected, it is a hospital for the sick!

Don’t resist faith in Christ based on the actions of others. Receive faith based on his action on your behalf. His life, death, and resurrection.

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”