Christianity has never been a practical religion. It has never promised efficiency, cultural dominance, or political usefulness. From the beginning, the call was something far more impossible: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Not perfect in performance, but perfect in love, mercy, and holiness — perfect as Christ is perfect.

We live in this tension: we know we will fail, and yet we still aim. Because the goal isn’t practicality; the goal is Christlikeness. Practicality asks, “Does this work?” Christianity asks, “Does this look like Jesus?” Practicality pursues results; Christ pursues obedience. Practicality avoids waste; Christ pours Himself out.

Why Some Conservative Christians Recoil at Social Mercy

This is where modern conservative Christianity often collapses. Feeding the poor, caring for the vulnerable, supporting social welfare, or housing the homeless — so much of what Jesus commanded — is regularly dismissed as “impractical,” “too expensive,” or “not our responsibility.”

But their reaction exposes something deeper: they’ve replaced Jesus’ call to perfection in love with a pursuit of practical efficiency.

Wanting a Christian Nation Without Wanting Christ

The irony is striking.

On one hand, many loudly demand a “Christian nation,” a “Christian society,” and a return to Biblical values. They want the label, the identity, and the aesthetic of Christianity decorating their politics.

But the moment you ask them to act like Jesus, something inside them recoils. Christlike mercy feels repulsive. Christlike generosity feels naïve. Christlike humility feels weak. Christlike forgiveness feels unrealistic. Christlike compassion feels wasteful.

They want a Christian state but not a Christlike self. They want Christian laws but not Christian love. They want the crown of Christianity without the cross of Christianity.

And here is the painful truth:

If you find it hard to act like Jesus —
if His way feels inefficient, foolish, or unrealistic —
then one of two things must be true:

You don’t actually know the real Jesus
Not the Jesus of political movements or cultural nostalgia,
but the Jesus who washed feet, touched lepers,
uplifted the poor, and even forgave the men killing Him.

Or Christianity is just a cultural label you’ve attached to yourself out of convenience.
A badge of identity, not a transformation of the heart.
Something to claim, not something to imitate.

Because to know Jesus is to know that His commands will always feel inefficient, His compassion will always look foolish, His mercy will always seem impractical, and His love will always look like a waste to anyone chasing worldly “results.”

God’s Measure of Faithfulness

Jesus Himself told a story that completely destroys the obsession with practicality: the Good Samaritan. Nothing about his actions was efficient. He wasted time on a stranger, risked his own safety on a dangerous road, spent his own money on someone who could never repay him, and took responsibility for a man who wasn’t his responsibility. Every part of what he did was impractical, inconvenient, and socially irrational. And Jesus didn’t say, “Admire him.” He said, “Go and do likewise.”

And what about the widow whom Jesus praised for giving two tiny coins—all she had? She didn’t fix poverty. She didn’t improve society. She didn’t change any statistics or solve any systemic problem. But she was Christlike, because faithfulness has never been measured in practicality, outcomes, or efficiency, but in the willingness to give everything for love.

Christianity Isn’t Practical — It’s Personal

A practical religion would never command you to love your enemies, welcome the stranger, forgive endlessly, give without expecting anything back, carry someone else’s burden, or take up your cross daily. None of these things “work” in worldly terms. None of them build empires or political machines. But they build saints.

Because to belong to this world is to seek, measure, and implement practicality — constantly asking, “Does this benefit me? Does this scale? Is this efficient?” That is the logic of earthly kingdoms.

But to belong to the Kingdom of Heaven is to pursue perfection — to chase after Christlikeness even when it costs you, even when it makes no sense on paper, even when it looks like folly to everyone around you.

And even when we fail — which we do, constantly — the infinite grace of God restores us, lifts us again, and sends us out to pursue it once more. Not because He needs our perfection, but because He delights in our pursuit.

Christianity is the daily, stumbling, grace-drenched attempt to be like Christ. Not because it is practical, but because it is holy.

References

• Matthew 5:48 — “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
• Matthew 25:31–46 — Jesus’ teaching on caring for “the least of these.”
• Luke 21:1–4 — The Widow’s Two Coins.
• Matthew 5–7 — The Sermon on the Mount.
• Matthew 16:24 — “Take up your cross and follow Me.”
• Luke 23:34 — Jesus’ forgiveness of His executioners.

Historical & Theological Sources

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship — on costly grace vs. convenient religion.
• Stanley Hauerwas, A Community of Character — on Christian ethics as inherently “impractical” in worldly terms.
• N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God — on Jesus’ countercultural ethics and power inversion.
• Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity — on early Christian charity defying Roman practicality.
• Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind — on moral foundations and why compassion often seems “impractical” to conservative moral frameworks.
• Christian Smith, American Evangelicalism — on cultural, not Christlike, identity shaping modern Christianity.
• Ecce Homo (1871), Antonio Ciseri — Public Domain.