There are way too many “icky”, Over-saved Christians.
Funny – Most are aware of this
There are Christians out in the world who are infinitely annoying. These are the people who can’t say a sentence without bringing Jesus into it. These people are masters of constantly shoving emotional ideas down your throat, and they usually have an accompanying Ph. D in Self-Righteousness.
Look, we all love Jesus, that doesn’t mean we have to end every sentence with His name.
How annoying would it be if you constantly did that with your husband’s or wife’s name? Common sense tells you not to do that. And nobody is going to want to sit around with you, holding hands and singing Kumbaya if you continue to be annoying.
If you want a surefire way to turn off everyone you meet from Christianity, be one of these annoying people. No one wants to sit by you in Church, you are annoying.
Let’s spell out what happens when other people interact with over-saved people.
After talking with the over-saved individual, they assume that if they become a Christian they have to act like them. That person thinks they will have to be over-saved as well. That instantly kills any desire that they have to become a Christian. They think, “If I have to become as annoying and fake as this guy who can’t go two seconds without talking about how Jesus did something miraculous in His life, then I will just not bother with this nonsense”.
The same principle applies to other religions. People see Muslims blowing themselves up and they think, “If I have to blow myself up to be a Muslim, I think I’ll pass on that one”.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t talk about Jesus, we definitely should, but even Jesus did not constantly talk about Jesus.
He realized the need to develop common ground with men through stories they could relate to before he added spirituality to the lesson.
I enjoy talking about Christ just as much as anyone, but I also realize you can burn out the conversation extremely quickly if you can’t leave Jesus alone. The same applies to every topic of conversation. You would quickly burn a person out if all you ever talked about was football. No one would want to hang out with you because you can’t go two seconds without talking about the game. Unless you are also one of those annoying people who can’t go two seconds without talking about the game. In that case Jim is by the water cooler, you guys can stay over there and talk about sports.
It’s not wrong to talk about Jesus, it is just annoying to not be able to go one sentence without forcing Jesus down someone’s throat. There are strategic ways to share the Gospel to other people without drowning them in your emotional highs.
The main problem with over-saved people is how fake they seem.
They don’t act like humans, they put on the facade of being immune to daily troubles and persecution. They are overly nice in a very forced, unnatural way. There is a fine line between an encouraging Christian and a Christian who is probably trying to sell you something based on their forced optimism.
You can find plenty of these people in mega churches. Now personally, I don’t really care what you believe, and you obviously don’t care what you believe either if you go to a mega church. You just work out your own salvation with trembling and fear. Or in Your case, with fog machines, rocks bands and strobe lights. All we ask is that you try to show some civility when sharing the gospel.
You wouldn’t run around promoting infatuation and adolescent “love” as solid grounds for a marriage relationship, yet you think that your emotional high is what makes your faith real.
The moral of the story: Don’t be over-saved because you will be really annoying and thus will convert very few people to Christianity. Focus on being a real person. Christianity is not an act, it’s a lifestyle. Christianity is not something we do, it’s something we are.
Spartan Christianity: Hardcore Christian Principles
