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“Portrait of a Loveless Christian”
Categories: M. W. Bassford, Sermons
As all of you hopefully know by now, my favorite sermon topics are the ones that the brethren here request. I know that when I preach on those topics, my sermons are closely connected to the interests and needs of my hearers, and I believe that makes them as useful as they possibly can be.
This morning’s sermon idea comes from Jason. He and I were talking after my sermon two weeks ago, which was about love, and he began musing about what the portrait of a loveless Christian would look like. I said, “That’s a great idea! I’ll preach on that!”, so here we are.
It’s tempting, I think, to compare such a portrait to other Christians whom we have known, but it’s most important to compare it to ourselves. When we figure out where we have fallen short in our love, it shows us where we most need to improve. Indeed, if we don’t figure that out, we may lose our souls over it. Let’s consider, then, what this portrait of a loveless Christian looks like.
First, the loveless Christian is PUFFED UP. Consider 1 Corinthians 8:1-2. In context, Paul is referring to first-century Christians who understood that it didn’t matter whether meat had been sacrificed to an idol or not. In comparison to God and Jesus, idols are nothing! However, these knowledgeable Christians were so self-centered that they didn’t care that their behavior was leading others to sin against their conscience.
Today, the debate about meat sacrificed to idols isn’t an issue for us, but spiritual arrogance still is. It can show up in any number of ways. It appears in the life of the Christian who has studied a great deal, but who uses his knowledge to crush and intimidate others rather than gently guiding them to God. It also shows up in the Christian who doesn’t know nearly as much they think they do and aren’t nearly as righteous as they think they are, yet presume to sit in judgment on others. When Christians insist on getting their way in every decision that the church makes and aren’t willing to let some minor matter go for the sake of peace, that too is being puffed up.
These things are sinful, but they are insidiously dangerous because they are not immediately obvious as sins. The Christian who is living in adultery sooner or later is going to be unmasked and called to repentance, but it is entirely possible for unloving and arrogant Christians to remain on the membership rolls for years or decades. We’re usually not comfortable in confronting one another when the presence of sin is a matter of judgment, so when it comes to these things, each one of us must search our own hearts.
Better still, we must work to develop the humility of Christ: not callous toward others, not blind to our own shortcomings, not self-seeking. For the Christian, it always is right to put others first, to set their good before our own. The worldly wisdom of arrogance sees this as the road to ruin, but in reality, it is the way to becoming greatest in God’s kingdom.
Second, loveless Christians are HYPOCRITICAL. Look at Paul’s appeal in Romans 12:9. Love must be without hypocrisy because the presence of hypocrisy reveals the absence of love.
We have no better example of this than the Pharisees. Often, people describe the Pharisees as arrogant legalists. They did everything right in the Law, and they trusted in their own righteousness to save them. Well, that’s partially true. They did trust in their own righteousness, but they did not do everything right in the Law.
The problem with the Pharisees wasn’t the laws they kept. It was the laws they broke. According to Jesus, the Pharisees were willing to watch their parents starve in order to keep a vow they had made to the temple. They used legal trickery to take the houses of poor widows away from them. They tithed garden herbs, but they had zero interest in justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
In short, the Pharisees followed all of their own little rules and condemned those who did not do likewise, but the godliness they claimed for themselves was not actual godliness. Instead, they were disobedient to God’s will and dishonored Him.
Today, then, Pharisaism still is a massive potential problem for Christians, but it’s not the problem that people think it is. It’s not a problem when we care about all of God’s commandments, even the tiniest ones. However, when we get so focused in on the tiny ones that we stop obeying the broad, significant ones, that’s when we walk in the footsteps of the Pharisees.
We don’t have a piano in our church building. Great! We don’t spend money on church colleges and fellowship halls. Wonderful! We show up for services every time the doors are open. Outstanding!
But where are our hearts, brethren? Where do we stand when it comes to justice, mercy, and faithfulness? Do we shine at home and at work so that people who look at us see Jesus? Do people know that even the hard things we tell them, we say because we love them? These are the things that distinguish the genuine disciple from the hypocrite.
Finally, loveless Christians BITE AND DEVOUR. Pay attention to Paul’s admonition in Galatians 5:13-15. Here, we learn that contention and hostility toward our brethren is another thing that excludes the possibility of love. As John so pointedly asks, if we can’t love our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God, whom we have not seen?
There are so many ways that biting and devouring can show up. It happens on social media all the time. In fact, it seems to be happening all the time recently. This isn’t scientific by any means, but I’ve had a number of Christians tell me over the past week that they’re leaving Facebook at least temporarily because they can’t handle all the vitriol that brethren are spewing at other brethren. All these ugly arguments over the pandemic and racism and what have you—those things are biting and devouring. They’re sinful!
Biting and devouring happens plenty in person too. Sometimes, we bite and devour a brother or sister when they’re not even present. I’m talking, of course, about gossip. I think all of us know that not all Christians are equally easy to like and get along with. It’s probably true that for somebody, every one of us is one of those Christians! Nonetheless, even if a brother jumps up and down on our last nerve every time we see them, that still doesn’t give us the right to talk bad about them behind their back.
Love doesn’t do that. Love doesn’t zero in on the quirks and faults and imperfections. Love celebrates what is beautiful and good about everyone—and prays for patience with the rest!
Finally, we bite and devour when we stir up trouble in the congregation. Some Christians seem to have a knack for it. They’re always in some fuss with somebody, and it’s always going to the elders and making their lives miserable. Brethren, if that’s us, we need to take a long, hard look at the possibility that the problem isn’t all those other Christians. It’s us! If we aren’t careful, our selfish bickering can do massive damage to the church.
