Imagine you are the parent of a daughter who has this potential boyfriend. From your conversation with her you discover the following about this guy:
- He doesn’t really have a real job.
- Most of his friends don’t really have real jobs either.
- He didn’t go to a top university. In fact, he’s not that educated.
- The job he used to have was blue collar. He worked with his hands.
- He’s not fashionable. He more or less wears the same grungy shirt every day.
- He’s a hippie with long flowing, unkempt hair.
- He doesn’t respect the leaders at his church. They think he’s crazy and offensive.
- He travels quite a lot. Kinda of a nomad.
- He’s a loner type. Nobody really gets him, including his best friends.
- He doesn’t really have much of a savings account. He lives paycheck to paycheck.
- He doesn’t own a house and will never be able to afford one.
- He’s the godliest Christian dude ever. He genuinely loves people.
So what would you say to your daughter?
- “Sweetheart, I think you can do better.”
- “Sweetheart, he’s a real nice guy, but I’m not sure how he’s gonna financially support you if you got married. I mean, he doesn’t have much himself.”
- “Sweetheart, this guy won’t make our family look good. We’re not in the same social class.”
- “Sweetheart, ________________ (fill in your own blank).”
So have you figured out what you would say? I know that in some ways, this is not fair because it’s so hypothetical, but what I’m trying to point out here is that there are many reasons why you might be concerned about this potential boyfriend. Maybe he’s not that good-looking, both figuratively and socially. Maybe you think he needs to be more financially secure. Maybe he’s of a lower social class than what you prefer. The list can go on.
But what I’m trying to get at is that the description of this potential boyfriend fits the description of Jesus. So if you were hesitant about this guy, you were hesitant about the most beautiful, awesome, loving, gentle, and kind person who has ever lived. This was the perfect man. If the perfect man is not good enough for your daughter then the person with the real problem is YOU.
It’s amazing how much sex, power, status, and money affects our decision-making and our lifestyles. It affects us to the point where we might overlook a person like Jesus. Church-going parents always say that they want their sons or daughters to marry a godly person. Church-going singles would also say that they want to marry a godly person. But when we say that we want someone godly we don’t really mean that because we wouldn’t want someone that SOLD OUT to God like Jesus. We want someone who is a CINO (“Christian in Name Only”) who happens to have a lot of toys (i.e. money, wealth, looks, social status, education…).
If we are honest with ourselves, we really only want to associate with, marry, talk to, etc… those that make us look good. That’s what it all boils down to at the end of the day. And that, my friend, is not very godly.