Have you seen the movie Hitch? It’s this romantic comedy with Will Smith. Alex Hitchens, played by Will Smith, is a date-doctor who helps men set up dates with the women of their dreams. Toward the end of the movie, Albert Brennaman, played by Kevin James, comes to Alex to fix the relationship that he set-up. Alex, baffled by his own love life, tells Albert to shut it out and move on. Albert in misery comes back at Alex with: “You’re selling this stuff, but you don’t believe in your own product.”
And this is the line that got me thinking. Much of the tension between Christians and non-Christians (and quite honestly between Christians and Christians) is this sense that as Christians we are trying to live out a life that is holy, loving, merciful, gracious, Christ-like. You get the point. But, we are human. We fail and that comes across as hypocritical.
The hypocritical trail is everywhere. One of the most recent examples is Ted Haggard, a former pastor in Colorado, who was caught soliciting homosexual sex. Ted openly opposed same-sex marriage. One that always stuck out to me was in high school when the same kids who led Sunday school on Sunday were out drunk the Saturday night before. This isn’t about being hypocritical though.
What is it about then? Simply put by Albert, “You’re selling this stuff, but you don’t believe in your own product.” It’s not about saying one thing and doing the other. It’s about saying one thing and not believing what you are saying you believe. As Christians we talk about the amazing grace and love of the triune God. We sell God as the God of love and grace, but do we believe in our own product? When grace should be shown to others, do we? When we are supposed to love those we are to love, do we? Or do we not believe in our own product? Do we instead believe in the product of judgment, condemnation, hate, jealously, etcetera? Do we merely act like the rest of the world? Do we hate the ones we are supposed to hate and love the ones we are supposed to love? What good is this? (Luke 6:27f)
It is easy to judge and condemn. It is easy to turn a head to the poor or be ignorant of the inequality in the world. If we are to believe in our own product we must take up hope, we must take up faith, and we must take up love.
1 comment:
This is a really good point, and a neat connection to the movie Hitch, too. I think its also interesting to think about the difference between acting like a Christian, and acting like Christ. Thanks for writing such thought-provoking blogs!
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