A well-known Christian actor is bemoaning the way believers treat one another on social media and encouraging them to "return" to Christ-centered love.
Actor Nathanial Buzolic, known for his roles in The Originals and Hacksaw Ridge, told his fans on Instagram that Christians should be known for their love and their care for others – and not for their snarking.
"The Christian community (particularly on Social media) is fast becoming a fig tree that has gone completely rotten – producing bad, to no fruit at all," Buzolic wrote on Instagram, where he has 3 million followers. His comments were accompanied by a picture of the Sea of Galilee.
"Our love for one another has grown cold," he wrote.
The Australian-born actor often discusses his Christian faith on social media. His Instagram bio reads, "Following Jesus of Nazareth."
Referencing the church's failure to love, he wrote, "I'm not surprised by this since Christ did give us a NEW COMMANDMENT to love one another as he loved us – if God's First Nation failed to live out the Torah often, it's not surprising that we the gentiles would fail our task of radically loving our community as our benchmark.
"Yeshua also mentioned the reality of our loveless approach coming in the final days before His ultimate return," the actor added. "This coldness of love Has been put on display often by the copious amounts of Criticisms made by 'Christians' towards fellow Christians."
If a Christian's primary contribution to God's kingdom is "telling someone else how they should correctly live" without "living it out with them," then "you have switched over to full-blown Pharisee mode."
"We are called to correct, teach & train our fellow Christians," he wrote, "but remember this Paul walked with believers before writing letters of conviction to them. [L]et me say that again He walked with them, He knew them & they knew him. Many [Christians] today seem to take real pride in tearing down other believers publicly whom they have no real relationship with.
"The greatest mistake the Pharisees of Yeshua's time made was assuming things about people they knew not or cared not to truly know, in addition to this, they would hold a higher standard of living to others more than how they were willing to live out themselves."
Buzolic then quoted Romans 1:16-17, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is from faith to faith, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'"
"It would serve many Christians well to read these words carefully & establish what this looks like practically," he concluded. "Second return to Christ-centered love today."
Photo courtesy: ©Dole/Unsplash
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
