Christianity Doesn’t Have A Look

Christianity does not have a ‘look’. If you are looking for a Christian in outward appearance you are looking in the wrong place. Christians all over the world have tattoos and gauges, bare feet and scruffy beards, business suits and jeans, t-shirts and long hair, short hair and no hair, children who are young and energetic, adults with wrinkles and everyone in between. Christianity does not look like a fine-pressed, Sunday best, never had a bad day in my life individual. The person wearing clean clothes and perfectly lined lipstick might be the most broken-hearted among you and the person with ripped jeans and a worn-out t-shirt may be Spirit-filled. The outside of a person is not a window to the inside of their heart.

Are we looking for hearts as we go out into the world or are we looking for the outward appearance of someone to see if they fit the mold we define as Christian? I’m not sure about you, but what I look like first thing in the morning is not what I look like when I am fully ready for church. My messy bun and mismatched pajamas from like three Christmas’s ago, glasses and retainer is my daily wake up look. Then I shower and fix my hair and put on mascara and those two looks are VERY different-but I am the same person. Someone might judge me in the Christmas pajamas and perhaps be more welcoming after my hair is brushed…but Jesus, sees me both ways and he loves me both ways.

This is true on a Spiritual level as well. God saw me in my broken, failing, sinful state and loved me then and he loves me now as his child, I will always be a sinner but I am now covered with the blood of Christ, redeemed and free. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 So if he loved me as broken and loves me as redeemed that also needs to be how we go out into the world. Loving the broken and the redeemed. Do you have any messy bun, Christmas jammie strangers or acquaintences in your life? The people who maybe dont look like they fit the Sunday best mold but who desperately need Jesus. God sees hearts and he sees my heart and your heart and he sees when we simply added makeup to look the part or when we truly are transformed and no longer care how we look because our entire lives have been changed.

We need to, as the body of Christ, look and love those who are not fully put together. (I would also venture to say no one is fully put together as this will not happen until we are restored with our Savior in glory.) We need to love people in their hot mess state as well as when they are healed. We need to learn to see people like Jesus did and the only way to do this is through the Holy Spirit. We need to pray and ask God to show us how to love as Christ loved others. Afterall, he saw me and you and He wants us to see others in that same way. It is reassuring to others to know they are not alone in their struggles, so we need to be honest with them and not act like we have it all together.

For anyone on the outside looking in, Christians do not have everything put together. We struggle with anxiety, depression, loneliness, anger, impatience, temptations, sin, regret, among other things. The only difference is that we have a savior who was also tempted in every way but is without sin and He understands our humanity and He tells us to come to Him ‘all who are weary and heavy burdened and He will give us rest’. He bears our burdens and gives us strength to resist temptation. He also builds us to be like Him and fills us with the fruit of the Spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Christ working in us is what makes us different and sets us apart. The difference you see in our lives – is Him. Nothing in and of ourselves is worthy to boast about, we can only boast in the sanctifying work of Christ in our lives.

Not even Christ had an outward appearance that would attract you to him. He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
Isaiah 53:2 This verse is a prophecy about Jesus written many years prior to his birth by the prophet Isaiah. It is not a coincidence that Jesus had no outward appearance to attract us to him. Interestingly, both Saul and David and Esther and Sarah are all described in the Bible as being outwardly beautiful or handsome, but that is not the description of our Savior. People were not drawn in because he was hadnsome and muscular with perfectly proportioned features. Instead, this verse says nothing in his appearance would have made us desire him. And yet, Jesus is the most beautiful human who has ever walked the face of this earth. As we look into the crowd of souls that fill our churches and the world around us, remember that we could have easily walked by Jesus not taking a minute to stop and notice him. He did not resemble a sunday best, dressed to impress, cookie-cut mold. We need to challenge ourselves to look past the outward appearance and instead at the heart of an individual and the only way to see the heart is by having a conversation. So my prayer is that the next time you see someone that does not look like you, the one maybe you would easily walk by, that person could be a man or woman after God’s own heart and my encouragement is that you will take time to say hello and see their heart and share the heart of Jesus with them.

The Lord Bless you and Keep you,

Kara