Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians - you are not

“Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians — you are not like Him.” Thus spoke Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of nonviolence, whose life itself became a testament to truth lived with courage and compassion. In this piercing declaration lies both admiration and lament. Gandhi, though not a Christian, revered Jesus deeply. He saw in the Nazarene not merely a figure of faith, but the embodiment of divine love, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice. Yet, he looked upon the nations that bore His name and saw not the fragrance of that love, but the scent of pride, greed, and division. His words are not condemnation alone, but a call — a trumpet blast summoning all who claim the name of Christ to return to His way.

Gandhi first encountered the teachings of Jesus through the Sermon on the Mount, and it stirred his soul. “Turn the other cheek,” “Love your enemies,” “Blessed are the meek” — these, he said, were the words of one who had truly known God. They resonated with his own Hindu and Jain upbringing, which taught that truth (satya) and nonviolence (ahimsa) are the highest laws. Yet when he witnessed the conduct of those who called themselves Christians — colonizers who oppressed, merchants who exploited, churches that discriminated — he saw a tragic contradiction. The Christ he loved had been crucified anew by the hypocrisy of His followers.

In his time, India groaned under British rule, and much of that rule came cloaked in the garb of Christianity. Missionaries spoke of salvation even as their compatriots denied Indians their dignity. To Gandhi, this was the wound at the heart of Western faith — that men who preached of the Prince of Peace waged wars of domination. Thus he said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.” Not as mockery, but as grief — for he believed that if Christians truly lived as Jesus taught, the world would be transformed overnight.

And yet, Gandhi’s words reach beyond any one faith. They speak to a universal truth: that the greatest betrayal of the sacred is not unbelief, but hypocrisy — to honor a teaching in word while defying it in life. The distance between the ideal and the real is where the soul of humanity stumbles. Every religion, every creed, faces this same peril. For it is easier to build temples than to live mercifully, easier to speak of forgiveness than to practice it, easier to worship love than to become it.

Consider the story of Saint Francis of Assisi, who lived many centuries before Gandhi. When the church of his time had grown rich and distant from the poor, Francis heard the voice of Christ say, “Rebuild my church.” He took the words literally, but soon realized the call was not to stones, but to souls. He renounced wealth, embraced the leper, and walked barefoot among beggars, preaching not with sermons but with compassion. He became the living image of the Christ he adored — and through his simplicity, the church was renewed. Francis stands as proof that Gandhi’s sorrow need not be the final word.

For Gandhi did not reject Christ; he called His followers to become like Him. He saw in Jesus the highest ideal — not a god far removed, but the perfect human, the one who loved even His executioners. To follow such a one is not to worship Him with words, but to imitate Him in deed. To be Christian, then, is not merely to profess belief, but to practice radical love, humility, and forgiveness — even when the world mocks such virtues as weakness.

So, O seekers of truth, take this wisdom to heart: every faith lives or dies by the character of its followers. The name of Christ or of any prophet means nothing unless it is written upon the heart. To claim belief is easy; to embody it is divine. Let your life, therefore, speak louder than your creed. Let your kindness preach where words fail. Let your actions mirror the compassion of the One you call your teacher.

For in the end, as Gandhi knew, the world does not need more preachers of love — it needs examples of love. The greatest testimony to any faith is not its rituals or its scriptures, but the beauty of a single soul who lives as its founder lived. Therefore, strive not to be Christian in name, but Christlike in spirit. And when the world looks upon you, let it no longer echo Gandhi’s sorrow, but say instead: “Behold, they are as their Master — they love as He loved.”