It has no place in the heart of a follower of Jesus. As long as it’s clear who you’re supposed to love and who you’re supposed to hate, everything goes smoothly.īut contempt is the silent killer of Christian charity. Even worse, sometimes church leaders are tempted to justify or further inflame feelings of contempt as a strategy for showing the congregation they’re on the right side. Like it or not, we live in a world where contempt is excused or sometimes expected. The church isn’t immune to these cultural forces. Cable news channels feed the beast with segments designed to attract eyeballs and lead to outrage. Contempt for MAGA or for the woke, the “forty-nine percent” or the “basket of deplorables”-politicians frequently resort to sneering disdain as a sign of their ideological purity. John Newton warned about this attitude hundreds of years ago: “Whatever it be that makes us trust in ourselves that we are comparatively wise or good, so as to treat those with contempt who do not subscribe to our doctrines, or follow our party, is a proof and fruit of a self-righteous spirit.”Įverywhere we turn we find avenues for inflaming that self-righteous spirit. And culturally these days, with tribal forces at work, going public with contemptuous words toward the opposition is how you prove your purity and loyalty. An inspiring vision is one way of rallying a base, yes, but a much faster and easier approach is to unite around a common despising of the other side. In politics, being united by disdain and contempt for the other side is what mobilizes your own. Why is contempt a big deal right now? Because it’s lucrative. It’s the attitude Jesus warned about in the Sermon on the Mount ( Matt. It’s more than disagreement it’s disgust, rooted in the inability to see the image of God in your opponent. It’s the sin of contempt, of looking at the person across the aisle from you and thinking, The world would be better without you in it. He loves Jesus and he loves his congregation, and that’s why he’s on guard these days against something he called the “silent spiritual killer”-a sin that hinders Christian witness and destroys Christian love. That’s what a pastor told me earlier this year, a man serving his church faithfully in the Deep South. All other trademarks and copyrights are the properties of their respective owners.“One of my biggest tasks as a pastor right now is to challenge my people and keep them from contempt.”
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