Christians are not always the good guys. Plenty Christians are petty, dishonourable or unreliable while non-Christians can be compassionate neighbours and colleagues of integrity. So is pursuing the ways of God really necessary, or worth the effort? Can we be good without God? Are the failings of individual Christians this a valid reason to reject Christianity? The Covenanting minister John Carstares discusses this problem in his introduction to James Durham’s sermons on “the great gain of godliness” (1 Timothy 6:6).

One groundless prejudice against godliness is that those who have made a big noise about being Christians, and made big claims for Christianity, have many great and gross failings and faults. They are as worldly, as pedantic, as peevish, as proud, as hot-tempered, as vindictive, as vain, as selfish, as those who never professed to be Christians. Are they not therefore all a pack of hypocrites? There are a few things to say about this.

Some are Christians in name only

Among those who claim to be Christians there are always some who are not really godly. They “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5), and in doing so, they disgrace godliness as far as they can, and destroy their own souls. But why should their faults be attributed to godliness, when it’s the lack of godliness that actually causes them?

Undeniably, Christians have failings

It is not to be denied, but freely and honestly confessed, with sorrow and regret, that all the godly have their own failings, weaknesses and faults. They are not sinless angels, nor perfected saints. No believer on this earth has been so beautifully godly as to be without any blots and blemishes whatsoever. “In many things,” said the Apostle James, speaking of himself and other godly people, “we offend all” (James 3:2).

Yet these failings are reflected on with grief and sorrow of heart by the godly, when in any measure they analyse the situation, and to that extent, they always proceed from and are caused by their not being seriously and suitably, consistently and constantly exercised to godliness. We cannot in the least blame godliness for these failures, because godliness makes the godly censure themselves more severely, chide themselves more sharply, and judge themselves more seriously for these failures than anyone else reasonably can.

Christians have good points

There are many good, commendable things worth emulating in the godly, which are not found in others. Why should these be overlooked and passed by entirely, only to scrutinise and exaggerate the few failings in all (or the bigger faults in some) of the godly, when those who are judging are entirely destitute of those many other good things which the godly have? Surely this is not dealing fairly. It is very like the disposition of the insects which can fly over a whole meadow full of fragrant sweet-smelling and pleasant flowers, and sit down on a little dung and enjoy it!

God has reasons for permitting His people to be imperfect

In His sovereign, holy and spotless providence, God may permit some of the godly to mess up badly, for various reasons. By doing so, He chastises and humbles them, and also warns others to beware in case they fall, and “not to be high-minded, but to fear, and to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation” (Romans 11:20; Matthew 26:41).

Also, in His righteous judgement, He leaves those who are prejudiced against Him, and gives them up to their own hearts’ lusts. They hold on to this deep-rooted prejudice against godliness and the godly, dismissing them as a pack of hypocrites and deceivers, and in doing so they stumble and fall and break their own necks, because they have drawn their conclusions from the failures of a few individual Christians, and imputed them to all Christians as such, and against godliness itself.

In fact, in every society, city and countryside, some failure or another on the part of a godly person is talked about and industriously spread around. Then, when the example and practice of the godly looks like reproving and convicting the ungodly, they always have these few failures to talk about, to ensconce themselves against the otherwise irresistible force of these convictions, and save them from reformation. They always have something ready at hand so that they can say, “They may have a reputation for godliness, but he has done this, and she has done that, and he messed up in this way, and she that way.”

This is something that believers should bear in mind, so that they would be more motivated to “walk circumspectly,” and lead exemplary convicting and edifying lives. Surely they ought to seriously pursue the mortification of their own sin, self-denyingly and self-sacrificially, since the consequences of causing such stumbling run so dreadfully deep.

Some Christians do lead a very blameless life

It cannot be denied that though lesser or greater faults and failures are visible in the godly, yet there are some believers who live very inoffensively, and whose blameless lives in a great measure adorn the doctrine of God and the profession of godliness. These not only have the form of godliness, but they also display the power of godliness, not contradicting or belying their profession by their practice. Impartial onlookers cannot but think and say that these are truly godly persons, and “God is in them of a truth.” Why then does not the blameless behaviour of many encourage as much respect for godliness as the blameworthy behaviour of a few others in some things detracts from its reputation? This exposes the deeply though unjustifiably rooted prejudice they have against godliness and the godly.

Christianity as a whole should not be tarred with the same brush

What reason is there for imputing these faults and failures of a few Christians to all Christians in general and to Christianity itself, and in this way endeavouring industriously to bring them and it into disgrace and contempt, so as to be disapproved, disowned and so utterly rejected with such disdain and detestation? Is any other group, of any profession, science, art, or trade in the whole world, treated in the same way? Where is any society of any profession or craft or calling, utterly renounced and abandoned with the profession itself, on account of the failures of a few of their number, or because some were not so good at the trade as others in the group? What group or occupation could stand this? Why then should godliness, and the godly as such, be the only ones to be treated in this unique and unusual manner? Especially when these mistakes are confessed with shame and sorrow by the guilty persons themselves, and not at all owned or justified or extenuated or condoned by the rest of the godly, but disclaimed and condemned? And when all the followers of this religion are taught by their own principles to “deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, to lie soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12)?

The biggest critics of Christianity are the biggest hypocrites

Those who are so ready to notice and speak out against Christians, and Christianity itself, because of the failings, faults and mistakes of some of the godly (of which there are, sadly, admittedly, too many), are at the same time conniving at the same, or worse, in others and in themselves, and quietly indulging themselves with liberty and latitude in them! Why do they not amend them? Why do they not make the effort to out-strip them in all manner of godly living? Where would they find any Christian finding fault with them for doing so? But they not only do the same things, or worse, themselves, but they make allowances for others who do so, or find no great fault in them for it (at least nothing like what they accuse Christians of), and they point the finger at Christians, and decry and disgrace Christianity itself. This betrays pure dislike of godliness, and most unfair and irrational prejudice.

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