As a church, we so often profile people the minute they walk through the door. While many people find solace within the confines of a sanctuary, there are many who seem to fall between the cracks. Rather than welcoming these individuals in with open arms, we make instant rash judgments based on shallow observations.

A man walks into church with ripped jeans, tattoos, and piercings. It only a matter of minutes before whispers circulate throughout the sanctuary about this new stranger sitting in the back pew. His rough exterior He has tattoos and piercings, so he must be a drug addict. We look down at our ironed clothes and instantly believe that lie that we are superior. We are so consumed with our own lives that refuse to see the hurt of others and often choose judgment over compassion.

We condemn the scantily clad woman sitting in the shadows of the sanctuary, and we make immediately make assumptions about her character. But why are we so quick to judge the sins of those we have never even met while we so conveniently neglect to acknowledge our own immoral actions? The church is designed to serve as a community, a safe haven with open doors to people of all walks of life but the minute a stranger walks in heads turn and inferences are quickly formulated.

Church, we have failed. We sit next to these people and our fake smiles cannot hide our unprecedented feeling of self-righteousness. The church is often the place that people seek peace in the midst of life’s trials, and yet love and forgiveness are often that last things that we practice. Our judgmental biases cloud of ability to treat each other with the respect that everyone deserves. The instant we see someone different than us, we fall into a comparison trap and somehow always come out on top.

Jesus himself dined with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, alike and yet we are unwilling to extend a warm handshake to the stragglers in the back row. It is time that we take seriously the call to act as members of one body and pursue unity and love within the church. We tell ourselves that we are the body of Christ, and yet we are hesitant to extend grace and acceptance to those who we deem unlike us. So, next time a stranger walks into church choose to see them as a person fighting to survive in the same broken world you are.

The church is more than a building, it’s a community made up of the most broken, hurting, and sinful people on Earth. So, instead of demonizing those who are unlike ourselves we ought to embrace them—united by our need for Christ.