Human as we are, we Christians tend to develop wrong mindsets that we will need to let go of and replace with better ones. These mindsets may or may not be sinful, but one thing that's sure about them is that they hinder us from living the life that God wants us to live.
These mindsets, when embraced, are self-defeating and prevent us from doing what God wants us to do, not to mention having a good testimony before others.
Here are some common mindsets that many Christians need to let go of.
1) Competition between churches
Many Christians have an exclusive relationship with their home churches. If we talk about commitment to meeting with a family of believers for fellowship, doctrine, prayer and worship as recorded in Acts 2:42, that's fine. If we talk about comparing one church to another, however, that's wrong.
There are some Christians today who tend to compare their home church with others. They compare the worship style, how the pastor preaches, the design and feel of the church building or structure, and pretty much every minute detail including how the worship service is conducted. While this is sad, what makes it sadder at times is that the members aren't the ones doing this, but the pastors and church leaders themselves.
We shouldn't be doing this! Jesus Himself said to his disciples, "he who is not against us is on our side" (see Luke 9:49-50). We have an enemy, and that is not one another.
2) The church bubble
Christians spending a lot of time in the church but rarely outside of it are also in danger of encasing themselves in a "church bubble." They have their own world inside the church, relatively distanced and separated from the world in a wrong way. Let me explain.
Jesus did say that we are in this world but we are not of the world (see John 17:16), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't care about others. Many Christians today are so busy with church activities and relationships inside the church that they are totally out of touch with reality.
Some of them aren't updated with current events. Some of them don't even know what's happening to their own families. Some of them think they're happy in the church, and so they don't care about what's outside of it anymore.
This is wrong, friends. Christ literally left heaven and took the form of a man in order to save all of humanity and creation. What makes us think we can just ignore the people whom He loved after we are saved?
3) Holier-than-thou thinking
Pretty much the most dangerous of the three mindsets I present to you today, having a "holier-than-thou" mindset is pride and hypocrisy to the max. It exalts one's personal holiness and emphasizes another's sinfulness, forgetting the fact that we're all sinners undeserving of love and grace from God yet we were made recipients of it.
Many Christians develop this critical, self-righteous and condemning mindset after being saved. They think they're better than others, particularly those who are yet to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. With an "us-versus-them" mindset, they emphasize that others are "sinners" while they are the "saved" and the "chosen," forgetting that we are all saved by grace.
Friends, this wrong mindset produces behaviors and a vocabulary that drives away the unsaved from the Saviour. They talk Christ, but walk the opposite.
