Being a Christian Always Looks Similar

Lately, a Relevant Magazine article has been making its rounds through my social media circles. The article, titled Being a Christian Doesn't Always Look Like You Think It Should, lays out an argument for why we need to allow room for grace in each other's lives. It may look different when Bob is saved than when Alice is saved. A relevant (pun intended) example in the article is Shia Labeouf's recent proclamation of faith. The statement in which he said he was saved, he let two expletives fly. It's a good article and I encourage you to read it. But I encourage you not to take from it what many have.

Many people have read this article and thought "this is a great reason why I should never comment on someone's sin or ever let anyone comment on mine! Who are they to say if I'm sinning?" Or, as one commenter put it: 

There is nothing worse to me than human beings deciding what a sin is and who's doing it. As you said, that's God's territory! We should never be in the place to judge someone else or to tell them they're sinning.

 To gather this understanding is to gather the wrong one. Dr. Preston Sprinkle did not say that sinning is fine and only between you and God. He said how someone is sanctified (changed to look more like Christ, perfected) will look different for everyone.

In the interest of fairness to Dr. Sprinkle, I contacted him. I summed up these responses and asked "do you mean to say no Christian should comment or correct on another Christian's sin, no matter the circumstance?" His response was encouraging (highlighting is my own):

I absolutely do not think that a believer should never correct another believer. To NOT correct would be unloving. 

For what it's worth, the article summed up a chapter I wrote in my book, Charis: God's Scandalous Grace for Us. In that book I talk about the relationship between grace and obedience. I believe a true believer will obey. Otherwise, he's not a true believer. 

The article was simply trying to show that what this looks like will look different for different people... 

 Dr. Sprinkle rightly lays out some of the ways a Christian will always look the same. Christians, if they are loving, will correct their brother and sister when they are in sin. Christians will obey while resting in grace.

We see both of these concepts in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, Paul specifies that we are to judge the church and, in fact, purge evil from among us. Jesus, the guy many people pin as the poster boy of not judging, gave us clear instructions in Matthew 18:15-20 to confront our brother in sin, first in private, then more publicly to help him understand what he's doing is serious.

Why do we do this? Because Christians are to obey God our Father. This concept is nuanced, and is well beyond the scope of a blog or an amateur as myself. I encourage you to find a sound Biblical teacher to show you more about this. We can see it briefly in 1 John 3:4-10. This is very difficult language to hear, is it not? I quite often still sin. Am I to understand I am not a Christian? I think the obvious answer is no, both from other scriptures discussing confession of sin (how am I supposed to confess something that I never do?) and observation. Again, I encourage you to discuss this with a pastor or leader who is strong in the faith.

It is clear, from Dr. Sprinkle's response and the Bible itself, that we are not supposed to allow our brothers and sisters to continue in sin. We should follow Jesus' model and confront them privately about it first, in hopes of gaining our brother. But we must understand that Christ's perfecting and sanctifying of his Church will look different person to person. Help them and do not think it strange if they have more trouble with a particular sin than you.