Why claim it if we don’t mean it?

I don’t understand Christians who like to claim Jesus but never actually follow the things he calls on followers to do.

I don’t understand claiming to be for peace when we never actually practice it when it is most needed. As soon as we find ourselves in the slightest bit of tension or conflict, we automatically look to prepare ourselves for war, violence, might, and defense — anticipating that peace won’t actually be tried. We don’t even give peace a real opportunity. We just set it aside as soon as we can to get to the “real” solutions to any problem — anything that uses force to settle a dispute.

I don’t understand claiming to be for forgiveness when we never actually practice it when it is most needed. Heck, we really don’t even understand what forgiveness is. Maybe because we’ve never really experienced it in life. Or rather, because we don’t think we have. When we have, it’s been unusual and outside of the norm, so we don’t think it’s real forgiveness. We have a skewed version of what forgiveness is — some sort of weakness, or letting people get away with things.

I don’t understand claiming to be for grace and mercy when we never actually practice these things when they are needed most. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. And mercy is not getting what you do deserve. But in practice we do the opposite.

I don’t understand claiming to be for loving our neighbors when we never actually practice it when it is needed most. Who are our neighbors — all people. Because all…