Divine, Human Love (2): Being a witness

Continuing with my reflection on the topic of Divine, Human Love … …
I think I’ll start with Human Love & how it is related to being a witness to our faith.

Being a witness?
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8, NIV)

What does the word “witnesses” mean?
The word “witnesses” is μαρτυρε in greek & it occurs 24 times throughout Acts. Our English word "martyr" is a direct translation of the Greek word μαρτυρε. According to the Cambridge Learner’s Dict.., a martyr is a “person who suffers greatly or is killed because of their political or religious beliefs, and is often admired because of it”.

In contemporary church, has Christians failed in their witnesses?
Certainly, we are no martyr. However, what about the basics? (which seem to be the most difficult to live out too!)
How about our unloving acts?
Do we live the lives similar to that of non-Christians?
Why then do so many (that's what I think!) Christians, as well as non-Christians, accused the church of hypocrisy?
I was reading J. Bridges’ book The Discipline of Grace. I think he most rightly commented that most often our sin problems is in the area of refined sins. Yes, we may not murder, kill, rob, steal, commit adultery, ill-treat maids, … … We may not support physician assisted killing, homosexual acts, … We may not have commit these (grievous) acts, but unloving, unkind, proud, bias, judgmental, selfish, self-centered, gossip, impatience, rude, self-righteous, … … Are we not guilty? Here are more examples:

In the church … …
We do not smile when we see a new-comer.
We do not smile when we see someone we do not know.
We do not smile when we see someone we do not like.
We do not smile when we see someone not belonging to our “gang”.
We do not smile when we see someone who has make us angry before.
We do not smile when we see someone who our friends do not like.
We do not smile when we see someone who our pastors do not like!

Note:
“Smile” is only an example, it is replaceable with: talk to, shake hands with, mix around with, have fellowship/ bible study with, be friends with, … … (the list can be endless.)
Very sadly, the “We” can be any Christians. Lay, clergy, deacons, elder, pastors, Sunday school teachers, cell group leaders, ushers, … … are all guilty at one time or the other!!

In between … …
We spend too much time gossiping than spreading the great commission.
We spend too much time doing our own things than doing God’s.
We spend more time thinking about my money which is in bank than our father who art in heaven.
We spend more time grumbling than praying.
We make more people unhappy than disciples?
We only spread the gospel to the people we like!
We only include the people we like in our cell group/ bible study!
We only go to the church whose pastors we like! (We do not care much about its teachings.)
We only read the bible version we like! (We do not care much about its reliability!)
We only go to the church whose worship style we like! (We do not if it is biblical.)
We only read Christian literature whose authors we like!
We only give to God the amount we like! (We do not care much about the church’s need.)

In private … …
We pray that my salary come (hopefully faster) rather than thy kingdom come.
We pray my will be done rather than thy will be done.
We pray give us this day more money rather than give us this day our daily bread.
We pray that others forget our debts rather than forgive us our debts.

Some thoughts … …
Many a times, people (non-Christians) do not see the Christ-likeness in us Christians who are the body of Christ.
"Do not be conformed to this world (Rom 12:2)." Is what we lack & maybe what we have missed. “To be conformed to the image of his Son” is what we need (Rom 8:29).We need a metamorphosis!!
“The Gospel becomes credible when it is visible as well as audible.” –-Rev Dr John Stott.
Jesus said, “you will be my witnesses”, what’s our response?

All the above acts of lack of Christ-likeness are mainly due to the lack of love for God & fellow Christians.

Does our Christian Testimony show:
the change that happened in our life when we invited Jesus Christ into our life?
the power of God that changed us and make us look at life in a whole different way?
the power of the cross?
the awesome love of God?
that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (known as the trinity) does exist? (From the love btw the persons of the trinity, we learn to love.)