Christian Slogans: The Top 5 You Should Cease Using Right Now!

Christian Slogans: What now?

Christian slogans – if you have been a Christian long enough, you would have heard, or used, some of them. Probably these Christian slogans were used in attempts to summarise the truth of Christianity. But have you ever stopped and pondered some of these slogans or catchphrases you have heard?

The reason why I chose to bring this up is that we sometimes treat these slogans as if these are the truths that are taught in the Bible. But just like how we sometimes misinterpret the Bible, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that the slogans are found in the Bible and treat them as gospel truths. As John McKinley has put it in his blog post, Christian slogans tend to be weak catechisms of our Christian faith and incomplete theological expressions of our faith.

Hence, I decide to look into a top 5 list of common Christian slogans that we should stop using right now.

1. God helps those who help themselves

This is one of those popular Christian slogans that probably appeal to the Asian and self-help mindset the most. After all, it encourages people the idea that we need to be motivated to do something ourselves before God can help us.

But does that really describe God’s nature?

Does God only help us when we “help ourselves”?

The simple answer is “no”! The one test case from the Bible comes from God’s plan for salvation and justification. The issue is this: can we really help ourselves to salvation without Christ? If so, then we are probably believing in some form of Pelagianism. The truth is that we were all dead in our transgression (Eph 2:1-3) and could not do anything to help ourselves. The only way out is for God to come in and help us – through Jesus Christ. This is God’s grace.

And for us to believe in this slogan/cliche, we are implicitly denying the grace of God in our respective lives.

Is that what we really want to do?

Indeed, God helps those who cannot help themselves – and that applies to our salvation in Christ.

2. God will not give more than what you can handle

Christians like to use this slogan to encourage themselves when they go through tough times, or when church leaders are challenging people to take up difficult tasks. The idea behind this comes from the verse 1 Cor 10:13 – when Paul told the Corinthian church that God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear.

However, this is yet another case of misinterpretation of the Scripture. The context of this verse happens when Paul was discussing the issue of idolatry and food that was plaguing the Corinthian church – that the issue was manageable. Moreover, the issue with temptation always point towards sin. Hence, it is not necessary that this describes the everyday trials that Christians go through.

Also, on the flip side, theologically, the slogan in question is really the case, then what about God’s grace? Already in 2 Cor 12:7, Paul affirmed that he has a thorn that was unbearable but God refused to remove the thorn from him. Instead, God wanted Paul to depend on His grace. So, I will argue that this slogan is not the entire truth. God will put us in situations that we cannot handle – so that we know we cannot depend on ourselves but on God Himself.

3. God loves the sinner but hates the sin

This is a little problematic, even for me. After all, when I was doing my research for this set of Christian slogans, this is the one that doesn’t come across as wrong.

But that is what makes it so dangerous and why we need to be careful.

It is true that God demonstrated His love for mankind while we were all sinners (Rom 5:8-10, Col 1:21). However, the Scripture also describe a God who hates the evil-doers and will pronounce judgement on them during the Last Days (Psa 5:5-6). Moreover, Jesus’ admonishment in the Bible is wider than this slogan. As Christians, we were to love our neighbours as ourselves.

The definition of neighbour is certainly broader than the term “sinner.”

4. If you want to become more like Jesus, get married

This is one of those Christian slogans that we usually hear in marriage talks, made popular by the author Gary Thomas in his book “Sacred Marriage.” The full saying goes like this:

“If you want to be free to serve Jesus, there’s no question—stay single. … But if you want to become more like Jesus, I can’t imagine any better thing to do than to get married. Being married forces you to face some character issues you’d never have to face otherwise.”

Gary Thomas

Unfortunately, this is a false dichotomy.

Firstly, we are called to become more like Jesus, regardless of whether we are married or single. When Paul exhorts the Roman church that we are all predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29), the exhortation is meant for all believers. While it is true that there are situations in a marriage that will test our characters, it does not mean that singles will encounter situations that will not do the same.

Secondly, we are all called to serve Jesus, and it is not necessarily true that singles are more free to serve Jesus. They might have more free time at their disposal but over time, as a married man and a father of two daughters, I realised that there are ministries that only married couples can be effective compared to singles.

Instead, we might want to say, “serve God and become more like Jesus, regardless married or single.”

5. Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship

I purposely leave this to the last as this is my favourite one to critique on. Originated from the west, this slogan is one that Christians will use to reach out to our unsaved friends. The key idea is to convey that Christianity is not a set of rules that we have to follow in order to be saved.

Except that this is also incomplete.

Firstly, it is not completely true to say that Christianity is not a religion. In fact, James used the word “religion” to describe the faith of his audience (Jas 1:27). The Greek word “threskeia” refers to expression of devotion to transcendent beings in cultic rites and worship. Moreover, the dictionary defines the English word as “the belief in and worship of superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” This makes Christianity technically a religion in all sense of the word.

So are we trying to redefine the language?

Secondly, there is a rule that all people have to follow in order to be able to be saved – that is to commit their lives to the person of Jesus Christ and to accept Him as their Saviour and Lord. There is no exception to this rule unless the person is able to live his entire life without sinning (Rom 2:7), which is impossible.

Thirdly, a relationship can be adversarial in nature. And that is THE relationship between God and mankind without Christ. We were enemies with God (Col 1:21). So what kind of relationship are we exactly talking about when we say Christianity is a relationship with God?

Let’s really understand what the Bible says

Instead of relying on Christian slogans to dump down the theological truths of our faith, we need to be able to explain what the Bible really says to other people. After all, we need to be prepared in season and out of season to give an answer on why we believe what we believe. The slogans discussed here are generally not complete and may not be totally false, hence they sound correct and nice.

But we can afford to be a little more critical and careful.

And I believe we can all do so.

Do share what other Christian slogans you have heard over the years that seem to water down the Christian truth. I would love to hear from you.