“… A New Metric”

by Steve Roper

What makes a good Christian?

This question, perhaps more than any other, reveals the depth of our imperfection and inconsistency within the church.

Many of us would recoil at the mere mention of the question. It is a question that forces us to find a way of living within the tension produced by two divergent realities. In one reality, we understand saying this inner question out loud can all too easily lead us to a place of judgement that is hypocritical, at best. At worst, some of us have been on the receiving end of hurtful judgements about our own worthiness to claim the title “Christian,” because we aren’t doing/thinking/being right. If we are prone toward a humbler spirit we know the power of the question and our unworthiness to answer it out loud. If we are prone toward an arrogant spirit we may feel it our duty to ask… and answer… the question, loudly. Whether we admit it or not, the allure of spiritual superiority is strong for any of us. We all want to know we are “in the right,” and so it is possible for any of us, whether humble or arrogant, to fall prey too easily to the temptation to describe “good Christians,” in terms of what is wrong with others.

The second divergent reality is a pragmatic one. Whether engaged in preaching, Bible teaching or even personal study of scripture… we are each one trying to answer the question and in many cases, interpret those answers, for others. We may not verbalize our quest so crassly, but we certainly may investigate it vigorously. So, we resist the question publicly and struggle with it privately. In that context, the manner in which we struggle with the question becomes as critical as the answers themselves.

The history of “C”-hurch and “c”-hurches is littered with the dry bones of battles waged over how best to answer this question about the “goodness,” of those who follow the way of Jesus. For a myriad of diverse reasons we seem to completely overlook the message of scripture contained from Psalms to Romans that the harsh reality of our situation is, none of us are “good.” Surely, “we” are at least a little better than “they.” So, we feel completely justified in our judgements about what “good” actually looks like. The end result is with an assuaged conscience we evaluate our discipleship, and the discipleship of others, based upon judgements that leave no noticeable room for ambivalence. We do this with the intent of “making a difference.” History, both ancient and recent is littered with criterion we have adopted and utilized with limited and sometimes questionable success; theological, social and sometimes political, in hopes of bringing unity to the body of Christ and effectively influencing the world to consider following Him.

Perhaps it’s time we all step away from some of the language and thoughts that so far have only served to build walls in anticipation of our next war. Perhaps we need to re-discover a long-forgotten metric to evaluate the closeness of our walk along The Way.

The world needs a revival… of kindness.

Kindness allows for disagreement. Kindness allows for free thought and strong convictions. Kindness allows us to speak forcefully about issues. Kindness allows us to honor our commitments to God and each other. Kindness allows us to stay true to scripture.

Kindness simply doesn’t allow us free license to be jerks in the process of finding our way.

I suspect if we went back and re-read the gospel stories of Jesus, we would find more evidence of kindness, on his part, than cruelty, ridicule or derision. For Him, the perceived value of people seemed to require his best toward them no matter their own behavior. The red letters in those same four gospels seem to bear witness to His kindness over and over again.

We live in a world today among people who are starved for kindness to the extent that we all are surprised when we observe it in the wild. How sad is that? Is kindness the exclusive domain of Christians? No. But for those of us who follow Jesus it certainly isn’t a bad place to start. The book of Romans (13:10) encourages kindness in this way: “Love does no harm (wrong) to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Our personal adherence to good theology doesn’t excuse us from kindness. It requires it. Our sense of being wronged doesn’t provide us a loophole to escape the decency of kindness. Rather, it necessitates it. No matter what quality we might wish to ascribe to the Jesus we follow, we cannot escape the picture of someone who… at his core… was kind.

What is there to stop us from asking whether our discipleship is built upon a foundation of kindness? What obstacle stands in the way of our kindness… other than ourselves?

What might the world look like if the inevitable criticism that comes is… ”they were too kind”? We might finally have the influence for which we have long hoped and sought.

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)