Are You an All-Weather or a Fair-Weather Christian?

The Bible makes it clear that suffering is a part of the normal Christian life.

In Romans 8:17, for example, Paul says that Christians are ‘heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him’ (ESV).

Similarly, in 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul states that ‘all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (ESV).

Or again, in Hebrews 12:7 the author says, ‘It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?’ And then in v. 11 he adds, ‘For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant’ (ESV).

There are also many other passages that teach along the same lines. Basically, there is no doubt that suffering is a normal part of Christian experience.

Times of great suffering

Most sufferings we experience are relatively low-level. These are minor problems of all sorts that we have to face on a daily basis, that cause us no more than a small amount of distress. We can expect to experience these almost constantly for the duration of our lives.

But I would suggest that it is also normal for Christians to experience times of great distress now and then. To have times like these often is fairly unusual but never to have such times is also unusual.

Many of the Psalms, for example, were written by David and others, when they were suffering really badly (e.g., Psalms 6, 38, 42, 77). And the New Testament tells us that the Old Testament was written for the instruction of Christians (Rom 15:4). There is no good reason for thinking that it is normal for Christians to go through their entire lives avoiding times of deep distress such as we read about in the Psalms.

So if we are devout followers of Jesus – as, of course, we should be – then there will probably be some times of intense suffering in our lives.

If we understand this, we will be in a much better place to face these times when they occur.

Christians who go to pieces in times of bad weather

We could compare seasons of life to different kinds of weather.

Good weather, or fair weather, is when life is not that difficult, when there are only minor sufferings to be dealt with. Bad weather is when the big sufferings hit.

It is not uncommon to find Christians who do very well in times of fair weather but who go to pieces when the weather turns bad.

In fair-weather times they are models of Christian discipleship, devoting themselves to prayer, Scripture, using their talents, sharing the faith, helping people, etc., etc. They cope reasonably well with the minor problems and sufferings that Christians experience in times of fair weather.

But when the big hits come, the agonies, that’s when their discipleship collapses. Instead of letting their sufferings drive them to God for help in their dire straits, they run away from Him.

These are the people represented by the seed sown on rocky ground in the parable of the different kinds of ground:

‘And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.’ (Mark 4:16-17; CSB)

When the bad weather comes, we need to run towards God

When the weather turns bad and we are in deep distress, for whatever reason, that is the time not to run away from God but to run to Him. He is able and willing to help us, and He will surely do so. I have been able to testify to this myself on many occasions.

Life without God is totally meaningless and hopeless anyway. A godless life is a tragic, empty thing. Running away from God is only going to make things worse for us.

Besides, we each have a need to be rescued from God’s eternal punishment, and only those who endure to the end will be finally saved (Mark 13:13). So quite apart from the fact that life here and now without God will not go well for us, life after death will go infinitely worse if we walk away from Him.

In John 6:66-69 we read about a time when many of Jesus’s followers stopped following Him, and He asked the Twelve if they wanted to do the same. On this occasion Peter gave an excellent reply:

‘Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.’ (CSB).

All our hopes need to be in God and in reaching fullness of joy in His presence after we die.

Warning new Christians

When people first become Christians, they often have quite an easy time of things to begin with. This doesn’t always happen, but fairly often it does. New Christians can therefore sometimes start to think that the absence of deep suffering is what they can expect for the rest of their lives.

I would suggest that it is helpful for new Christians to be warned that it is normal for believers to experience times of deep distress now and again. If they aren’t told this, they can be devastated when these times arise.

Let’s be determined to keep going

Let us all, then, be clear-eyed about the nature of Christian discipleship. It is normal for followers of Jesus to experience seasons of great suffering now and then. It is normal for the weather to turn bad from time to time.

When this happens, let’s be determined to keep going on the narrow path, following the Lord, regardless of what we face.

 

See also:

Some Things for Christians to Do When They Are Hanging On by Their Fingernails

Charismatic Churches and Their Attitude to Hardship

What to Do If You Feel Like Blaming God for Something

Taking Heart from the Apostle Paul’s Experiences of Setbacks and Failed Plans

The Seriousness of the Sin of Hypocrisy

The Gospels make it clear that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, something that really infuriated Him was hypocrisy.

Of course, there is no doubt that Jesus hated, and still hates, all sin with a passion. But hypocrisy is one of the things that clearly made Him especially angry when He was doing His earthly ministry.

What is a hypocrite?

Before going any further, I think it would be good for me to try to give an accurate definition of what a hypocrite is, because a lot of people don’t get this quite right.

Many have the idea that a hypocrite can be defined as someone who does the same thing that they criticise others for doing.

It is true that very often someone who does the same thing that they criticise others for doing is being a hypocrite. But not always.

So, for example, suppose I am driving my car and I make a minor mistake and another driver hoots his horn at me. But suppose too that the next day I am driving again and this time another driver makes a minor mistake and I hoot my horn at him.

So I am criticising the other driver for a mistake that I myself occasionally make. Does that make me a hypocrite? Surely not.

Or suppose that a husband lets his wife down in some small way and she criticises him for what he has done. But suppose too that the next day she lets him down in a small way and this time he criticises her. Does that make him a hypocrite? Surely not.

Instead of defining a hypocrite as someone who does the same thing that they criticise others for doing, I would suggest the following as a definition:

A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be good in a certain way that they know isn’t true.

In other words, a hypocrite is essentially a fake, a fraud. This is unlike the two examples I gave above, where there was no pretence on my part to be a better driver than I am, and where there was no pretence on the part of the husband that he never lets his wife down.

Hypocrisy, then, is about fakery, about pretending to be good in some way, while knowing full well that this is a lie.

Bible passages on hypocrisy

As far as Bible passages on this topic are concerned, Matthew 23 surely stands out. In Jesus’s strong words against the scribes and Pharisees in this chapter, He uses the word ‘hypocrites’ (Greek: hupokritai) no less than six times, as well as the word ‘hypocrisy’ (Greek: hupokrisis) once. And just reading through the chapter, we can feel the anger that Jesus clearly had for the hypocrites that He was talking to.

The scribes and Pharisees Jesus was addressing pretended to be morally upright citizens, but they were a million miles from being that. And they knew it.

Jesus’s words in verses 25-28 give a vivid description of what hypocrisy is and what He thinks of it:

‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’ (ESV)

We can see clearly in this passage what Jesus made of hypocrisy when His earthly ministry was in progress. And there is not a shadow of a doubt that His attitude remains the same today.

The world is full of hypocrites

It seems to me that everywhere I look in the world today there are huge numbers of monumental hypocrites.

For example, take those feminists who claim to be appalled by sexism, but who will seize any chance they can to discriminate against men.

Or we could think of the protestors against the Israeli actions in Gaza, who claim to be outraged at the deaths of civilians there, but who would never dream of protesting against the regimes around the world that kill far more civilians than the Israelis do.

Or again, take those political pundits who claim to be horrified by the erosion of freedom of speech, but whose horror suddenly disappears when people they disagree with are not allowed to speak.

And the list could go on. We live in a world that is crammed full of people who are utter fakes, frauds and hypocrites.

Christians need to be stunningly different

In this context, in this dark world of ours that is full of fakery and deceit, Christians need to be totally different, stunningly different. We need to be who we claim to be, to the nth degree.

Where we have faults, we need to acknowledge them. And where we have principles, we need to put them into practice all the time and without favouritism. Basically, we need to be sincere and without pretence.

In 2 Corinthians 1:12 the apostle Paul says something about this sort of attitude:

‘For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.’ (ESV)

Similarly, in 2 Corinthians 4:2 he writes:

‘Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.’ (CSB)

And Joshua’s words in Joshua 24:14 are just as relevant today as they were when they were first spoken over 3000 years ago:

‘Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.’ (ESV)

Let all of us who are followers of Jesus, then, redouble our efforts to avoid being hypocrites. The Lord requires this of us, and He deserves nothing less.

 

See also:

The Seriousness of the Sin of Pride

How Serious a Sin Is Sex outside Marriage?

Some Steps That Christians Can Take to Avoid Judging People

The Importance of Taking Steps to Avoid Temptation