The buck stops here

Yesterday, I was in a brief conversation with a warm, intelligent woman. Somehow we got on the topic of the way major religions treat women. She had quite a negative view gleaned from a university course on that topic. Concerning Christianity, she cited several horrendous periods of history when women were severely abused in the name of religion.

My response to that was the human tendency to shift blame. For instance, if the men in one religion have a problem with lust whenever they catch a glimpse of a woman’s skin, they blame the woman. I suggested that those who do horrible things in the name of their religion are simply buck-passing.

She picked up on that and said how she was raised to be responsible for her actions. She was quite aware how that virtue has been thrown out the window and how people blame their parents, the government, their culture, everything else but themselves when they do something wrong.

I pointed out that this is not a new thing. When confronted about the very first disobedience, Adam told God, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Adam had the audacity to tell God it was His fault for the woman being there in the first place, and her fault that he ate the forbidden fruit!

After laughing about that, I then suggested that the people who committed atrocities in the name of their religion were not practicing their faith, just blaming it for what they were doing. At that point, we were interrupted and the conversation ended.

This morning I’m still thinking about that last part, how people claim to be religious but don’t act like it. Jesus warned the disciples that wolves would come in dressed in sheep’s clothing, but saying you are a sheep and wearing wool does not make you one, no more than standing in a garage makes you a car, but how can true Christians be identified? We are supposed to profess our faith, so saying it is one way, but obviously saying it does not make it so. I can even say I am honest and be lying.

John, the disciple “whom Jesus loved,” wrote 1 John with this in mind. He offers a series of tests, such as, if I say I love God but do not love His people, my faith is suspect. If I say I have fellowship with God, but walk in darkness and sin, I’m am lying. If I say I have no sin, I am deceived; everyone is a sinner.

At the end of the book, John gives the bottom line. “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

It’s all about Jesus. If He is in my life, if I know Him personally and experience a real and intimate relationship with Him, I have eternal life. This is subjective, but not entirely. I could imagine it or say it is true, yet the rest of the book is clear; if Jesus is in my life, it will be obvious in the way I think, talk and act. I will slip and fall now and then, but Christ will be at work in me and be changing me. The fact is, no one can have Jesus and not be affected. His life is far too powerful. It will become obvious.

That does not happen to people who just say they are Christians. Instead, their walk will eventually fail to match their talk, or even if they ‘look good’ for a long while, God will confront them, maybe in the trials of life or maybe on judgment day, and the reality of where they stand will be made known.