Christianity, like many, if not all religions, suffer from the general problem of its adherents being unable to live up to its ideals. Or, if we were being honest, less desirous to do so. This may sound harsh, but it is an honest assessment of over forty years of observation. Christianity makes a lot of claims for itself and demands for its disciples that, when taken seriously, lead to a rather odd and difficult life that very few people find palatable for very long. This isn't to say there aren't groups who haven't come closer than others to living out the ideal, and for longer periods of time. It is only to say that, by and large, most do not. That is, unless you are planning on being a monastic, you probably aren't going to take the teachings of your religion very seriously except in a very few and specific areas.
When I was young I, like so many, foolishly though that the teachings of Scripture, all of them, were meant to be followed and adhered to. All of them. I am not saying I did this consistently or well, but I did feel and teach they were to be followed and made various attempts to do so. For example, Jesus taught that we are not to worry about where we were to live, wear, eat or even worry about tomorrow,
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:25-34)
To my wife and I this resulted in never buying a house, never getting life insurance, no savings, no retirement, etc. Why? After all, God was going to take care of us. Besides, to do any of those things was to demonstrate a huge lack of faith in our God.
It wasn't until years later that my wife and I really started noticing that most Christians we knew had large savings, life insurance plans, house loans and more. Why weren't they following Scripture like we were?
Because of my reading of Scripture I never voted. Why? Because the Bible taught that the government was establish by God,
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." (Romans 13:1)
Yet all the Christians we knew voted. In fact, the church we attended admonished all its parishioners to get out and vote every election season.
We sold all of our possessions and moved into a Christian commune (twice!) because of the book of Acts, we spanked our kids because of the book of Proverbs, my wife wore a head covering because of 1 Corinthians 11, my wife submitted to me and I was the head of the household because of...well...the entire bible. Yet, few Christians we knew followed any of these teachings. And the ones we knew of chose other passages to ignore.
I am not writing all of this to show you how good we were or to call all Christians to repent and align themselves with the teachings of Scripture. Quite the opposite. I now know that most of the teachings of Scripture aren't worth following in the first place. Head coverings, spankings, submission, slavery, genocide, anti-scientific claims like miracles, supernatural claims, and so on, are the imaginings of superstitious and uneducated men who simply didn't know any better. I am writing all of this because it is time we acknowledge this and stop being hypocrites, pretending we are following the teachings of a 2,000 year old book when, in fact, we are not. Not even close.
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