Christianity is the most peaceful, joyful, balanced, fair, love based walk that a human could ever encounter. In fact, the main reason the world is so critical of Christianity is that they recognize this fact and they see most of us living contrary to it. Real world Christians, however, recognize that the Christian life is a journey of learning and growth that never ceases. Those of us living here on the inside know how flawed we are and don't even feel the need to pretend that we are perfect. We understand who our Father is and in all of our childish, distracted, near sighted simplicity we trust that He is going to finish the work He has started in us. Then, in the midst of this quiet, personal journey of grace, we come across these arrogant, vocal, know-it-all Christians who seem to think they have it all together. These "perfect" Christians aren't joining us in our content walk behind Christ where we find rest in Him and satisfaction in our crosses. No, their life mission seems to be one of self deception where they are already a completed work and have been commissioned by God to help Him fix us so we can be as holy and right as they are. The worst part is that most of the time these mean Christians make us so mad that we wind up returning the attitude but what if these people aren't as simple as they appear? What if they need our help and our love? In order to help them we have to understand what has created their situation. There are a lot of factors but lets just take a look at the one area I believe may be the root issue.
Insecurity
Even the nicest house dog can turn mean when he is afraid. At the heart of every mean Christian you encounter is actually a person who is afraid. Maybe they haven't felt like they could compete with the talents and abilities of the people around them. Maybe something or someone in their past has made them feel as if they had very little self worth. Since this insecure Christian feels as though he would never be recognized or appreciated among the masses of "regular" Christians he is driven to create his own cult inside Christianity where he then can be recognized as extremely above average. After a while of living this way he starts believing that he really is better than most of those around him and his anger and resentment toward the people he feels intimidated by is then taken out on them through an attitude of condescension. They have made him feel meaningless, he believes, so in his new imaginary world where he is one of the elite he now attempts to return the favor.
How Can We Help?
Most of the time we instinctively try to fight fire with fire but there is two problems with that tactic here. One, the mean Christian needs his imaginary form of Christianity in order to have any self worth and he is never going to allow you to take that away from him. If he has to label you "ungodly" and call you a "heretic" in order to discredit anything you say he will not hesitate to do that. Secondly, you attacking him only confirms his inner fears that the world around him doesn't appreciate or respect him. No matter how brilliant your thoughts are, how passionately you speak, or how knowledgable of scripture that you are he isn't going to hear your words because of your approach. The essential key to reaching a person with this sort of insecurity is by proving their suspicions wrong. The simple concept of forgiving, long-suffering, tenderhearted kindness combined with an intentional outstretched hand of love goes a long way. Find something good in them and focus on it. Be the friend they've been looking for whenever even a tiny opportunity presents itself and don't take anything hateful or spiteful that they may say personal. The key? Realize that they are a person just like you with a struggle that may simply be different than yours. See them as brothers and sisters and do what you can to encourage them. Ignoring them may be the easiest answer but it's not what Jesus would do.
