Christopher Love had a great word for what wells up in my heart in these moments—oversuperciliousness. That isn’t a fancy word for holiness. It’s a fancy word for being filled with abominable pride and strutting around like a foolish peacock. It isn’t a mark of holiness to mock the weak. Instead, “the strong should cherish the weak. Angels despise not the poorest of Christians, but minister unto them”. Is it possible that our oversuperciliousness is wounding the faith of some weaker Christians and stunting their growth? Isn’t there a better way than ridicule to lovingly spur them onto a more grounded faith?

Making fun of immature Christians has turned into quite the lucrative market. The more mature Christians among us seem to have discovered this, as more and more spoof sites are cropping up. I find myself enjoying some of these and laughing along at some of the innocent humor. It’s good to be able to laugh at ourselves at times. But I also found myself quite convicted as I read through Christopher Love’s little book, Grace: The Truth, Growth, and Different Degrees. A powerful wave of conviction flooded over me as I thought about the many times I’ve rolled my eyes and silently mocked some well-meaning Facebook posts.

Yes, it’s frustrating that some believers feel the need to like and share a photo of an American looking Jesus in order to show their devotion. Yes, when compared to the believers being slaughtered for their faith it seems like a pretty paltry form of devotion. But what if it truly is a mark of grace that somebody who once would have never identified with Christ found the courage to hit that “like” button and identify themselves with Jesus—even if a crude representation of the Son of God?

Christopher Love had a great word for what wells up in my heart in these moments—oversuperciliousness. That isn’t a fancy word for holiness. It’s a fancy word for being filled with abominable pride and strutting around like a foolish peacock. It isn’t a mark of holiness to mock the weak. Instead, “the strong should cherish the weak. Angels despise not the poorest of Christians, but minister unto them”. Is it possible that our oversuperciliousness is wounding the faith of some weaker Christians and stunting their growth? Isn’t there a better way than ridicule to lovingly spur them onto a more grounded faith?

I find myself guilty of some of these. Here are five ways to injure and discourage weak Christians:

1. Raise the bar far beyond their strength and growth. Christopher Love actually warns his audience, encouraging them “not to put them to read such authors as are above their capacities.” (So maybe John Owen isn’t a good start for new Christians).
2. Be quick and harsh in your reproof of them. The unwise will think it their duty to stamp out every instance of sin when they see it. But grace will call us to be patient with every infirmity and work on winning the bigger battles at first.

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