Bad Christian vs Good Christian

The other day I was thinking about how bad I am at Christianity. Really bad. What is it that symbolises my badness. Well… here’s my personal list.

1. I have not been able to consistently engage in “traditional” prayer practices. (Head bowed, hands clasped, and eyes closed).
2. I still swear inside my head. The powerful F-word being the most frequent, followed closely by J.C.
3. I don’t like listening to our local contemporary Christian music station. I like hip-hop, hip-hop country, country music and house music; none of these are played on our contemporary Christian music station.
4. I skip the worship portion of the service because I don’t like the genre of music that either of my churches play.
5. I’m not a fan of Mark Driscoll’s theology, in fact, I’m not a fan of Mark Driscoll himself!
6. I’ve grown tired of doing Beth Moore bible studies (I’ve done at least 10 of them, all of them were great, but time to for something new! )
7. I think The Message is not a good resource for bible study. (It’s not a translation, it’s a paraphrase)

After I thought about all the reasons that I am a “bad Christian”, I started to wonder what God thought about my list of “badness”. If God wrote my top ten list of Christian no-no’s, would the contents match what I had written?

I wish I had an exact theological answer for what constitutes being a bad Christian. The only reference I have is the mental list of conscious and unconscious actions that I expect of myself and others. My personal list is full of things that I now realise are somewhat ridiculous. Who and what is determining good vs bad; is it our cultural norms or is it God’s standards as set out in the bible?

For now, I’m going to continue being a so-called “bad Christian”. The only thing on my list that I want to actively work on changing is my bad habit of using Jesus’ name as a cuss word and internally swearing. That’s not just a bad habit, it’s a sin! 

QUESTION:

• Do you ever think of yourself as a “bad Christian”? What criteria are you using to determine “good” vs “bad”?
• Which influences your Christian standards more, cultural norms or biblical standards?

ACTION:

• Take some time to reflect on your notions of “good” and “bad”. Ask God to help you remove unhealthy notions of what to consider right and wrong.
• Develop some grace for yourself. Being hard on our self and others doesn’t bring us closer to God.