Religion Can Be Dangerous
Sometimes the greatest barrier between people and Christ isn’t Christ at all. It’s the religion we’ve built around Him. What if being willing to question what we’ve inherited could actually lead us closer to truth?
People everywhere still have a hard time receiving Christ.
Sometimes the blockade isn’t Christ.
It’s Christians.
We can hold beliefs we don’t believe we’re allowed to question, only defend. And I wonder how we can truly show someone the foundation of our faith if we’re unwilling to seriously consider the questions they’re asking.
Sometimes what we’re clinging to isn’t truth.
It’s familiarity.
We’ve inherited Bible stories, theological positions, sayings, interpretations, and traditions from people and institutions we trust. And because we trust them, we can begin treating everything they taught us as though questioning any part of it means questioning God Himself.
For some people, that fear goes even deeper.
Question the institution. Question the teacher. Question the interpretation.
And somewhere in the back of your mind is the terrifying thought:
What if questioning this puts my eternity at risk?
So instead of examining what we believe, we defend it.
Instead of listening, we argue.
Instead of admitting we don’t know, we pretend we do.
And sometimes we become exactly what we never intended to become: proud, defensive, judgmental, and difficult to talk to.
We need a new set of eyes.
A new heart.
A new lens.
Not one that makes us less serious about truth, but one that makes us serious enough about truth to examine what we actually believe and why we believe it.
Jesus never seemed threatened by sincere questions.
Maybe we shouldn’t be either.
Scripture says:
“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” Luke 12:48
I used to think about that mostly in terms of responsibility. If you’ve been given much, you should do much with it.
But maybe there’s another responsibility that comes with being given truth:
You have to wrestle with it.
You have to study it.
You have to be willing to discover that something you’ve believed for years came more from tradition than Scripture.
That can be uncomfortable.
Maybe it’s supposed to be.
There’s a moment in Mark 9 that I keep thinking about.
A desperate father comes to Jesus seeking help for his son. Jesus tells him that all things are possible to the one who believes.
The man responds:
“Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” Mark 9:24
I love the honesty of that.
Standing in front of Jesus Himself, this man didn’t pretend his faith was stronger than it was.
He told the truth.
I believe.
But there’s something in me that still struggles to believe.
Help me there.
I wonder what would happen if Christians became more comfortable saying that.
“I don’t know.”
“I’ve struggled with that too.”
“I was taught this, but I need to see what Scripture actually says.”
“That’s a good question. Let’s wrestle with it.”
We sometimes act as though having questions makes our faith weaker.
Maybe refusing to face them does.
People can see through the performance anyway.
They know we don’t have everything figured out. They know we struggle. They know there are difficult passages, difficult questions, and things Christians disagree about.
Pretending otherwise doesn’t make Christ look stronger.
It can make us look less trustworthy.
What if instead of being afraid of hard questions, we welcomed them?
What if we listened before defending?
What if we were willing to separate what Scripture actually says from what we’ve simply heard repeated our entire lives?
Maybe we would grow in our own knowledge of God.
Maybe we would become better prepared to give a reason for the hope within us.
And maybe people who don’t know Christ would encounter fewer Christians trying to win arguments and more Christians humble enough to point them toward Him.
Truth does not need us to pretend.
And neither does Jesus.