Jesus and bad religion

You can take another look at Jesus without pretending your church experience was good.

Some people left because church seemed pointless. Others were shamed, controlled, or treated badly. Those are different experiences, and neither one gets helped by insisting you ought to be excited about another invitation.

Paul began his letter by reminding the Colossians that they were God's people, loved and qualified by the Father to share in His inheritance. They needed to know that before they could deal with the people telling them they weren't good enough.

That's where we can begin too: what has Jesus done for you, and did the people who spoke for Him represent Him well?

Jesus shows you what God is like. He gave His own life to make peace between you and God.

Colossians calls Jesus the image of the invisible God. All the fullness of God lives in Him. His treatment of us tells us something real about God: He came to reconcile us, forgive us, and bring us into His presence.

He knew our failures when He did that. You're not trying to persuade a reluctant God to care. He's already acted because He does care, and the Jesus who made everything has the power to save you.

A person's religious position doesn't make everything they say about God true. Their conduct can be considered in light of Jesus. If they were cruel or dishonest, you don't have to use their behavior as your picture of Him.

God canceled the debt of your sin in Christ. You don't have to keep making payments on it.

Paul says God made us alive with Christ, forgave our sins, and took away the record of debt that stood against us. That gives you something firmer to rely on than how guilty you feel today.

Being honest about what you've done wrong, apologizing, and making things right where you can all matter, because God and other people matter. They aren't installments on God's acceptance.

And someone else doesn't get to use your forgiven sin as a reason you can never say no. Giving, helping, and serving can be good things freely done by somebody who belongs to God. You don't have to do them under a constant threat that He might stop wanting you.

Their requirements don't automatically become God's requirements. Paul tells Christians to refuse that kind of religious judgment.

He tells the Colossians not to let anyone judge them over food, drink, religious days, or the supposedly superior spiritual practices somebody was promoting. Their place with God was already secure in Christ.

A way of praying, a kind of music, or a church tradition might help somebody love God. They can be grateful for it. But that doesn't make it a condition everybody else must meet to be accepted by Him.

I've made this mistake myself. I once told people they ought to spend half an hour to an hour every day in Bible reading and prayer, as though my schedule was the measure of their faith. The practices were good. Making my way a requirement for everybody else was the problem.

The people quoting the Bible have responsibilities in it too. Their authority doesn't give them permission to mistreat you.

Paul tells husbands to love their wives and stop being harsh with them. He tells fathers not to discourage their children. He tells masters to treat the people under them justly, remembering that they answer to a Master in heaven.

He doesn't tell husbands to make their wives submit. He doesn't hand powerful people a verse to enforce while they ignore what he says to them. Every person in that passage is responsible before Christ for their own conduct.

The commands about forgiveness and peace belong in a letter that also forbids lying, malice, and abusive speech. They can't fairly be used to make the person who's been hurt do all the changing while the person doing the harm keeps at it.

Yes. People who know they're loved by God can learn to give each other a great deal of good.

Paul describes compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love. He pictures people learning together, singing together, thanking God, and helping each other live. Those are things you can experience in an actual group of people.

You ought to be able to ask a question, admit a struggle, receive help, and grow. Kindness should reach the person who has little to offer as readily as it reaches the person who seems important. Leaders should be able to apologize and learn too.

It takes time to see how a church handles those things: what people do when somebody disagrees, makes a mistake, or needs help. Take that time. Life with other Christians is good, and you're free to find out whether the people offering it actually treat each other that way.