LIE: The goal in life is to be a good Christian

Lie:      The goal in life is to be a good Christian.

Truth: The goal in life is to glorify God.

This is an especially pernicious lie, mainly because it sounds so holy and good. What could possibly be wrong with wanting to be a good Christian? Are we to be a bad Christian? No, actually we are to be ‘good Christians,’ but the problem lies with the first part of the statement: ‘the goal in life is . . .’ This sets up the orientation of our entire life. So rephrasing the lie then: the orientation of our life is to focus on becoming a good Christian. That should give you a clue to its fatal error.

The main problem with this lie is that it wrongly orients us toward self. It aims us at our problems, our sins, our imperfections and then uses God to solve them. It puts the spotlight on man, instead of God.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, rightly oriented us. He turned us from worrying over what we eat or drink, how we are clothed, or how we could add one cubit to our height. He said:

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. — Matthew 6:33

It is his righteousness and his kingdom we are to seek first. Then, once properly oriented with our gaze fixed on his greatness and sufficiency, he adds everything else that we need. This re-frames our problems and sins in their proper perspective. It’s only in this framework that we can properly see ourselves.

The Christian life, especially in America, has shifted into a personal, independent pursuit. Christian book stores overflow with a broad range of biblical teaching on living the Christian life. Some of it is no doubt sound and helpful; the rest could be classified as Christian self-help, which is an oxymoron — Salvation is not self-help. We cannot save (read: deliver) ourselves; otherwise, we would not really need to be saved.

When focused on our sins we easily fall into the cycle, albeit unintentionally, of living simply in the mode of sin prevention and sin remediation. Dallas Willard calls it ‘gospels of sin management.’ Life becomes a pursuit of sinlessness, and because no one can be completely sinless, we end up denying, rationalizing, hiding or minimizing our sins. Consequently we turn into ‘professional’ (professing) Christians, experts in appearance management and behavior modification. Any one or all of these escalating modes creates an empty shell of a person, void of joy or genuine love or peace.

To understand this requires a paradigm shift; it takes the Spirit of God to reorient us. Patterns go deep, but for me, the realization of this came to me suddenly one day. I heard the Spirit whisper: You’re trying to be a professional Christian. Hearing that started me on a path of discovering an alternate, new and living way, a way that addressed my sins, but allowed me to see the awesome Christ in a new light.

Paul himself saw this when he refused to dwell on his qualifications, accomplishments, all of his own righteousness. He considered them ‘dung.’

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; — Philippians 3:7–9

He kept his eagle-eyed focus on Christ himself; he wanted to conform his life to Christ’s, even to die like him — Christ who offered up his life in service for the world, who took on himself the suffering, the anguish, rejection, misery and death of the world. Jesus was not interested in ‘looking good;’ rather, he died appearing to be the worst sinner of all, condemned as a blasphemer by the leading religious leaders of his day.

No, the goal in life is not to be a good Christian, but to focus on Christ and to forget ourselves in love, serving one another in the Name of him who showed us the way.

See also: Lie: the meaning of life is an unfathomable mystery.

See also the introduction to this category: Lies attacking our self-understanding.