Repellent Personalities

By A.W. Tozer, Sunday, February 11, 2007

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Sometimes we Christians are opposed and persecuted for reasons other than our godliness. We like to think it is our spirituality that irritates people, when in reality, it may be our personality.
True, the spirit of this world is opposed to the Spirit of God; he that is born after the flesh will persecute him that is born of the Spirit. But making all allowances, it is still true that some Christians get into trouble through their faults instead of through their likeness to the character of Christ. We may as well admit this and do something about it. No good can come from trying to hide our unpleasant and annoying dispositional traits behind a verse of Scripture.

It is one of the strange facts of life that gross sins are often less offensive and always more attractive than spiritual ones. The world can tolerate a drunkard or a glutton or a smiling braggart but will turn in savage fury against the man of outwardly righteous life who is guilty of those refined sins, which he does not recognize as sins, but which may be more exceeding sinful than the sins of the flesh.

Prayer
You want to draw people to Yourself through me but I sometimes repel them by my unChristlikeness. Lord, continue to change me!

Thought
Coldheartedness, unkindness, pride, harshness, impatience in us as believers are dispositional weaknesses that repel many non Christians. Rather than spirituality characterizing our daily living it may be unChristlikeness.

Used with Permission