Bumper Sticker Christians?

I'm taking a break from breaking down Jonathan's Placard--mostly just because I need to.  We'll finish the left column and begin addressing some serious misunderstandings Jonathan has about the bible on the right side of his placard next week. 

I think one of the things that bothered me the most about Jonathan's placard is that he supposes he can take thousands of years of writings and boil them down to something that the beauty and complexity of a bathroom door sign or a bumper sticker--and with that, he proposes to tell the whole story.  He can't, and we've been covering that over the last three weeks. 

Then it occurred to me that Christians have been doing the same thing for years.  In the last 20 or 30 years we've raised up a whole generation of "Bumper Sticker Christians", who, beyond the catchy, cute, catch phrases on their bumper stickers, and their boastful, loveless condemnation of others, don't really know anything about the Bible, or what it says.

Some of you wonder what I mean by "Bumper sticker Christian", while others know perfectly well what I mean, even if the term is completely new.  Being a bumper sticker Christian doesn't take any effort at all, but living a life worthy of your calling takes a little more attention to detail and it requires us to be thoughtful, and eager to share the love of Christ--more than our opinion. 

If you read the first Chapter of James you get the idea that your life is supposed to be living testimony to the goodness of God.  Let's look at verses 19-26:

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. ²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. ²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless."

It takes no effort to slap a sticker on your car, or put a cute tag line on your e-mail signature:  But, how are you doing on James Chapter 1?  I have to tell you there are some days that I don't do so good--on those days especially, my bumper sticker (if I had one) would testify against me to everyone, and then my behavior would become a reason for others to resist salvation. 

Rather than try to find a memorable close this time, I think I'm going to let James' words linger with you.  My prayer is that the Lord will lead people to this blog who needed to see these words. 

Please share with me through your comments if this blog helps you in any way--or if you have questions about anything I write here.  It's very encouraging to me to know that this is reaching you.