I was reading the first few chapters of Romans this morning and I stopped dead in my tracks at 2:24: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
The reason God's name is blasphemed because of us is because we are hypocrites. Whenever we contradict the character of God with our behavior while we claim allegiance to Him with our mouths, we stimulate blasphemy.
To blaspheme is to slander or speak evil of. So, when people who claim to know God behave badly, onlookers speak evil of or slander God. They attach our behavior to the God we claim.
Got me to thinking: How much blasphemy that has occurred in this world is directly linked to me?
Also made me think that people who avoid church and Christianity because of lousy Christians are actually practicing Romans 2:24. It's still a cop-out, but it's a biblical one.
Like that quote: "The leading cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who confess God with their mouths but then deny Him with their lives. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
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