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Thursday, January 30, 2025

Is the Idea of “Come As You Are” to Church Actually Biblical?

“Come as you might be” has turn into a well-liked phrase in modern churches. Whether they are saying it verbally or in printed or digital media, the statement is expressed. Generally, this goes together with an entire welcoming strategy that may include free coffee, gift bags, and a volunteer greeting you with a smile and handshake. 

At the identical time, Christianity is all about transformation and radical change. How does “come as you might be” fit with the aim of Christ?

What Do Churches Mean When They Say “Come as You Are”? 

First, we must always consider what churches mean once they say the phrase “Come as you might be.” This phrase communicates that folks don’t need to satisfy a particular standard, fix their problems, or appear apart from they’re to attend a worship meeting. Churches want individuals to feel welcome to be honest and real—no matter their background, struggles, or appearance. Most church communities hope attenders will come without fear of judgment or rejection. 

“Come as you might be” addresses certain practical issues, like clothing or social status. Unfortunately, the American church has willfully related to certain external standards regarding attending a worship meeting. Most churches expected people to decorate of their “Sunday best,” the nicest clothes they’d. And much more problematic, several denominations had rules of segregation based on race. Many organizations had—or still have—separate “black” and “white” wings. 

“Come as you might be” addresses this past as churches recognize how unbiblical, unnecessary, and even sinful (within the case of racism) these past policies were. More and more churches don’t have any dress code or prerequisites for attending, understanding spiritual growth and community take priority over how people dress. This general mindset tries to inform people they don’t must have an ideal life or a certain look to hunt God or take part in worship. 

Additionally, this speaks to how people feel about faith and God. People might hesitate to interact with church because they’re undecided what they imagine, or they feel unworthy or guilty, like God is upset with them. Churches say “come as you might be” to affirm the worth of all people. God doesn’t require anyone to be “ok” first, and everybody starts at different points. Churches foster a welcoming atmosphere to remove those obstacles to people coming to come across the God who will transform them. 

While churches don’t explicitly say it, there are some expectations for individuals who attend worship. Those who’re abusive or intentionally disruptive could be faraway from any group. Extreme behavior, like showing up naked, could be understood as not allowed. However, a church should at all times correct in love and provides probabilities for restoration and redemption for many who truly seek God in community, at whatever level they might be. 

What Verses Address Religious Requirements? 

Christian churches don’t need to look far within the Bible to see how external dress and standing not matter. The New Testament clearly shifts away from the Old Testament give attention to outward religious traditions as requirements for a relationship with God. True Christianity focuses on the unseen truths of religion, grace, and the guts’s transformation. 

Although, the Old Testament also addressed the fault with keeping religious traditions with a sinful, selfish heart. “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are removed from me. Their worship of me is predicated on merely human rules they’ve been taught.” (Isaiah 29:13) This reveals the failure of the Law, not that the Law wasn’t good, only that it was based on sinful humanity to satisfy it (Romans 8:3). 

Jesus quotes the identical verse from Isaiah when rebuking the religious leaders of his day (Mark 7:8-9). The Israelites couldn’t fulfill the Law, not the guts of it which is complete dedication to God through relationship. However, God could. And he did through Jesus. As a God and human, he met every expectation of the Law, each internal and external. “Do not think that I actually have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I actually have not come to abolish them but to satisfy them.” (Matthew 5:17-18) 

In the subsequent verses of Matthew 5, Jesus shows what he means by this. While the Law says don’t kill, he says don’t hate, because removing hate stops murder. The Law says don’t commit adultery, but Jesus says don’t lust, because ending selfish desire ceases adultery. Changing the guts’s nature from sinful to godly will lead to righteous and loving behavior. Therefore, Jesus’ ministry and the apostolic church taught true change must occur inside, and we shouldn’t be deceived about religious tradition. It has no power. 

Since Paul spread the Gospel among the many Gentiles, non-Jews, he addresses this in Colossians 2:16-17. “Therefore let nobody pass judgment on you in questions of foods and drinks, or with regard to a festival or a latest moon or Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to return, however the substance belongs to Christ.” In Christ by grace through faith, we possess the substance, making the symbol powerless. Also, Hebrews 10:1 says to the Jews, “For for the reason that law has but a shadow of the nice things to return as an alternative of the true form of those realities, it may well never, by the identical sacrifices which are continually offered every 12 months, make perfect those that draw near.” Shadows haven’t any substance and are only the absence of sunshine. Christ identified himself because the Light of the World. 

Under the New Covenant, being Jewish by blood, following external rites and traditions, observing certain days–all these give option to the priority of the inward change. 

How is “Come as You Are” Biblical? 

Since nobody, in their very own ability or identity, can save themselves, not even Jews, the early church learned to spread the Gospel to all people in every single place, no matter race or background. At the identical time, they focused on heart change. Jesus expressed and taught this through several encounters.

Christ would often eat with tax collectors and sinners. Since the Jews considered these people “unclean,” they wouldn’t even engage them. The Pharisees criticized him, but he responded, “Go and learn what this implies: ‘I desire mercy, and never sacrifice.’ I actually have come to not call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9) Jesus specifically contrasts mercy toward sinners with keeping the Law of sacrifice, and he quoted from the Old Testament to accomplish that.

In Luke 19, Jesus calls Zacchaeus, a tax collector, to return down from a tree. Christ invites himself to the tax collector’s house, which religious Jews would have never done. The encounter leads Zacchaeus to repentance, to repay what he has stolen several times over and provides to the poor. Jesus tells him, “Today salvation has come to this house.” One of Jesus’ essential twelve disciples, certainly one of the apostles, was a tax collector: Matthew.

In John 4:7-26, Jesus engages a Samaritan woman on the well, breaking cultural and spiritual barriers. While racially “impure” (in line with the Jews), she also had a history of divorce. However, this doesn’t stop Jesus from revealing himself because the Messiah and offering her “living water.” She believes and becomes an evangelist for Jesus.

Mark 1:40-42 shows how a person with leprosy seeks out Jesus for healing. Leprosy was a nasty and fatal disease, and Jews would exile lepers, considering them cursed by God. However, Jesus touches him (forbidden by the Jewish law) and heals him, proving nobody is just too unclean for God.

What Are the Biblical Prerequisites for Approaching God? 

As we see, churches should express how all are welcome to return to worship and have interaction with the church, as Jesus and the early church clearly taught. However, the Scripture does outline clear requirements for approaching God. We can come as we’re, but since we require inward change, our motivations and attitudes matter in how we draw near to God. 

Humility is central. James 4:6-8 tells us, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the common-or-garden. Submit yourselves due to this fact to God. Resist the devil, and he’ll flee from you. Draw near to God, and he’ll draw near to you.” Being humble is the key, involving a recognition of God’s authority, the reality of his person as sovereign and righteous. 

Jesus shows this contrast in Luke 18:19-14 where he tells a parable of the Pharisee and tax collector. The Pharisee takes pride in his righteousness, while the tax collector understands his sin and cries out for mercy. Jesus gives the lesson: the prideful might be humbled (against his will) and those that decide to be humble might be exalted. 

As we see within the above parable, humility results in repentance, a submission of our will and ways to God and his, for all times from the dead. Acts 3:19 says, “Repent due to this fact, and switch back, that your sins could also be blotted out.” Repentance each turns from our sin and concurrently to God with an actual desire to vary and follow him alone. Humility teaches our need for change; repentance acts upon the reality. 

We come to God as we’re because we will’t change ourselves. But since change is the goal, to live eternally through right relationship with God through Christ, we will’t come to him “as we’re” if based on pride, the basis of the Fall in Eden. 

What Does “Come as You Are” Mean for Us? 

“Come as you might be” highlights God’s grace and our responsibility to like all people as he does. At its core, the phrase reminds us we will’t earn God’s acceptance through our own efforts. “For all have sinned and fall wanting the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a present, through the redemption that’s in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24) Only his grace and love can save us, properly leading us to humility.

God takes us as we’re—broken and sinful—but he doesn’t leave us there. Instead, he seeks our transformation and redemption to his purpose and plans. He makes us a latest creation, empowered by the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17). God’s love meets us in our best despair and sin, but his grace gives us renewal and a life inside his mission if we are going to repent.

This understanding informs how we interact with others. Like Jesus, we welcome and search out engagement with people from all walks of life with love and style. Churches should create a community where everyone feels accepted no matter aspects like race, financial status, dress, their past, or current struggles.

At the identical time, love doesn’t affirm people’s sin, which ends up in death. But as we will’t save ourselves, we can also’t save others. Jesus called people to repentance and latest life, and so we must love them enough to point them to Jesus so he can transform and redeem them. Our balance of grace and truth reflects God’s heart and results in repentance through love and mercy.

“Come as you might be” challenges us to like others unconditionally while calling everyone to the reality of Christ. We model humility, not pride, knowing our own dependence on grace and extend the identical to others. Through his power, lives are transformed and redeemed.

Peace.

Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Aliaksandra Ivanova / EyeEm

Britt Mooney lives and tells great stories. As an writer of fiction and non-fiction, he’s keen about teaching ministries and nonprofits the facility of storytelling to encourage and spread truth. Mooney has a podcast called Kingdom Over Coffee and is a printed writer of We Were Reborn for This: The Jesus Model for Living Heaven on Earth in addition to Say Yes: How God-Sized Dreams Take Flight.

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