EVERY SO OFTEN, as you may know, I’ll ask you to privately answer a quick question without overthinking the answer. It’s important to notice the first thing that pops into your head. Nobody else (other than God) will know what you’re thinking, so there’s no need to filter the response.

Ready? Here goes…

What makes for an exemplary Christian?

My hope would be that we would all think of exemplary Christians as those who live in a way that demonstrates the character of Jesus, indeed the character of the Father. To use the words of the Sermon on the Mount, they would remember that Jesus had called them to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Their lives would shine in a way that would prompt others to glorify God (Matt 5:16).

And what does that mean? It means everything else that Jesus taught about righteousness in the sermon.

We’re nearly at the end of our study, and if you’ve been following along, I hope that by now what I just said seems fairly obvious. The challenge for us is that we’ve learned other ways of thinking; we’ve absorbed other values and priorities from our congregations and Christian subcultures. Whether individually or collectively, we need to recognize these values and hold them up to the light of the sermon.

For example, I know of congregations in which the gospel of grace is explicitly proclaimed from the pulpit, but the social environment implicitly promotes an ethic of works. Nobody there would dare to say that a person is saved by religious works; they know that this would be a blatant contradiction of the gospel. But the congregational culture is one in which people are continually encouraged to serve, and that encouragement is given in a way that promotes a works-oriented environment. At least some of the motivation for service, in other words, is to get the approval and recognition of others. Who volunteered the most hours? Who gave the most to the building program? Applause, please!

I think here of the story of Ananias and Sapphira at the beginning of Acts 5. The story needs to be read against the background of the end of Acts 4. There, a man named Joseph, whom we know by his nickname “Barnabas,” spontaneously sold a piece of property he owned and humbly laid the proceeds at the apostles’ feet, for them to help meet the needs of others. Moreover, he wasn’t the only one doing this. That was the character of the church in its earliest days.

Immediately after this, Luke gives us the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who also sell a piece of property and lay the money at the apostles’ feet. Unlike others, however, they didn’t bring all the money; they kept some for themselves. They had every right to do so, for the money was theirs to do with as they saw fit. But they lied to Peter, pretending to have brought the entire purchase price.

In a way that put all the believers on notice, Ananias and Sapphira paid for that sin with their lives.

Why did the couple do this? Luke doesn’t say. But reading between the lines, I assume it was for the recognition. I doubt that there was any elaborate public ceremony when Barnabas made his contribution. But that’s not to say that the contribution went entirely unnoticed. After all, it couldn’t have been mentioned in Acts if someone hadn’t told Luke about it. People must have shown heartfelt appreciation to Barnabas in their own way, and I imagine Barnabas staying humble and not letting the praise get to his head. He did what he did for God, and in so doing, set an example for others.

But the truth is that we live and act with mixed motivations; we serve God and are self-serving at the same time. We desire God’s approval but also the approval of the others around us. Realistically, it’s not either-or. We were created to be in community, and the approval and goodwill of others is valuable. Children, for example, who don’t have the approval and admiration of parents who may fawn and coo over every little accomplishment, can grow up emotionally needy. They will hunger for approval in a way that becomes a driving force in their lives.

Here’s another and more personal example. When I teach or preach, I want to know that the people listening are hearing and being impacted by what I say. I see their facial expressions and body language. Who’s frowning, and why? Who’s smiling? Who’s nodding? Who has their arms crossed — and is it in defiance or just because the room is cold? I’ve spoken in settings where the cultural norm was for people to maintain a calm and expressionless demeanor, and frankly, that made it harder for me to keep my own energy up. It’s easier for me to maintain my enthusiasm if I can see that people are tracking with me.

But every so often, it becomes more about my need for a response than about the message. I can veer into a random and sometimes inappropriate bit of humor just because I need to make someone — anyone, please! — smile or laugh. In that moment, it’s not about God and it’s not about Scripture. It’s about needing some emotional response, needing approval, needing people to laugh at my jokes.

It becomes about the performance and the applause.

THE REALITY OF many if not most congregations is that there will be people who are there more for what the environment offers socially than for what it offers spiritually. Again, please don’t hear me as saying that it has to be one or the other. It will always be — and should be — about both. The Christian life is not a solo journey, and we need a community of brothers and sisters who will encourage us, challenge us, and be there for us when we need them, just as we will be there for them.

At the same time, however, we can’t afford to be naive. Jesus has already warned that there may be wolves among the sheep, people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. That warning was specifically about false prophets, about people who claim to speak God’s truth but are spreading lies for their own selfish purposes.

If that were all Jesus had to say on the subject, we might be tempted to think that he just meant those few people who go to extremes spreading heresy and trying to take over or split congregations. But it’s not just about the few. All of us must examine ourselves honestly, asking ourselves whether we’re truly seeking God’s kingdom or something else. The next warning will make that clear.