Are you too serious?

In Gods Own Image

Do you know, I think that sometimes, maybe even too often, Christians take themselves too seriously – far too seriously. I think it is probably a bit of a religious spirit. That’s the same spirit as the Pharisees had towards Jesus. You can’t do this; you can’t do that. It’s Sunday so you’ve got to do this or that and you’ve got to behave like this. It must drive our heavenly Father absolutely mad. It must grieve Him beyond our comprehension. He must sometimes just want to give up on us. Yet He doesn’t give up on us; He doesn’t get mad, although He does grieve over us. I mean to say, what kind of witness is it to take ourselves so seriously that we look down upon the unsaved and unchurched?

What is it with us that, as soon as we ‘get religion’, we have to conform to someone’s idea of ‘what a Christian should look and be like’? Why do we have to be conformed to man’s ideas? What is wrong with God’s idea? I am certain that sometimes God laughs at our silly ideas. Here we are, wearing our Christian hat, being the epitome of our own idea of what a Christian should be, and God laughs at us – just before He weeps over us.

According to the Bible, God made man in His own image, and he saw what He had made and it was good. Genesis 1:26-28 & 31 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them”

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

His Word says that God laughs, He cries or weeps, He gets angry, and so on. If we are made in God's own image, then If God laughs, surely He laughs with us, surely He must sometimes laugh at us too. When we laugh at ourselves, that’s when He laughs with us and at us too all at the same time. Life is to be lived “Abundantly”. According to Jesus, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:9-10. In this context, I firmly believe that abundance means everything we need for a good life in Christ – including provision, love, and laughter.

Knowing all of this, why is it that so many Christians seem to live an abundant life of misery and bitterness? God made us in His image and Jesus has given us life in His abundance – that is happiness, sufficiency, and fellowship. We are to share our abundance with all men – not just our Christian brothers and sisters, but we are to love our neighbours too. That means loving them with God’s love; weeping with those who weep and laughing and sharing our joy with everyone we meet.

So let is please take ourselves just a little less seriously – God certainly does – and let us show the abundant, cheerful face of Christianity to all those around us. Family, work colleagues, and neighbours alike. After all, it’s the first step towards fulfilling the great commission.

Isn’t it?