I saw a video on YouTube of someone berating Christians who believe that we can only fix ourselves and not fix other people. She claimed that we cannot fix ourselves, and that only God can do that. She then claimed that the people who believe this are not even Christians. While she was berating those Christians, she then went ahead and told everyone what they needed to believe and think to be better humans. (Actually, she wanted them to be better Christians, but I don’t believe that Christianity is a competition, so I’m changing her words.) In other words, she was trying to fix other people. I wish her video was interactive. I wanted to ask her if she could repent from my sins for me because that would make my life much easier. Then, she could fix me, and I would not have to do a thing.
I have been struggling with this topic for a long time, and in the past few weeks, I have encountered situations in which people were more grossly engaged in focusing on what other people were doing, rather than on themselves. From a young celebrity getting pictures removed from social media because fans do not like his new girlfriend, to a student tattling on someone, while she herself was breaking a rule. The young fans cannot separate fantasy from reality, and the student could not understand why if she would fix herself, the world would be a better place.
The world becomes a better place when we begin to focus on our own sins and flaws and fix them because our own world is better. Life is beautiful when we remove our flaws and gain our strengths. We not only see the beauty in our own world, but in the world around us. Once we see the beauty, we do not have to focus on other people and what they do in their personal lives because we are so busy focusing on what we must do for those other people to have better lives with love and encouragement.
Jesus saw this flaw in all of us, in which we prefer to focus on other people’s sins than on our own sins. “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. Why do you look at the splinter in someone else’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?” (Mathew 7:1-3) (CSV) Those of us who are Christians, must focus on our own sins and flaws before we ever focus on anyone else. If we focus on our own sins, we do not have time to focus on others’ sins. Believe it or not, if everyone would work on their own sins, the whole world would become better because we would all have a vision of what sin is in our lives and how it needs to be removed.
For years, the church has focused on what those outside of the church have done wrong and have lost control of what is happening inside the church. Paul has warned us to not judge those on the outside, but on the inside. If we as Christians, would focus on the sins of those of us in the church and confess and repent from them, the church would become more appealing to those on the outside of it.
It is easier to focus on other people because we do not have to do anything but sit back and let our fingers fly on our phones or computers. The damage we have caused is that now, those outside of the church are judging everyone around them that does not think, believe, or act like they do. They have the name, “woke,” but they are a reflection of how the church has behaved for years. They too are judging people for what they say, believe, and do and desire for punishment for their misdeeds, but never confess their own misdeeds. It’s just like those of us inside the church. We influenced it. Now, that we see the grossness of it, we need to begin to make the change with ourselves first before we can influence them.
It is not selfish to work on ourselves. It can be the one job that if we all do, would make our society a much better place. We can only fix ourselves because we are the only ones that can repent of our sins. We are the only ones that can go to God and confess our sins. That is the beginning of fixing ourselves. Other people can inspire us. We still must put the words of their inspiration into practice. No one can do the work for us. We are the ones who must do the work. That is why so many of us claim we can only fix ourselves. The church needs to allow people to fix themselves and then, the church will be healthier as everyone is working on bettering themselves.
We need to see a sin in our own lives and begin working on eliminating that sin. Once we begin eliminating a sin in our lives, we begin to grow in our faith. People see our growth. People see the change. Then, we become a witness for Jesus because they see the change in us. We must stop berating other people and keep that to the people who are outside of the church. Once people see the difference from those of us inside the church encouraging and inspiring people and people outside of the church berating people, they will want to be inside the church.
The YouTube Christian woman was partially right. God does fix us. He changes us, but only when we ask him. We invite him into our lives. That is the first part of fixing ourselves. We all need Jesus. If we all focus on Jesus and what he wants from our own lives, then we will have a better life on earth because we have a heavenly vision with Jesus. It is selfish to focus on the flaws and sins of others and never right our wrongs. It is not selfish to focus on ourselves for spiritual health and begin to rid the sin in our own lives.
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