¹⁴ For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses. (Matthew 6:14-15 NASV)

In a recent interview with The Joe Rogan Experience, Michael Shellenberger, a renowned journalist who worked on the Twitter files shared how he has returned to the Christian faith.

Shellenberger was raised in a congregational home but had fallen away from his faith, but he returned while writing his latest book, Apocalypse Never.

But the reason he returned is fascinating.

For decades, Christians have pushed the notion that Christianity is free and easy and all we have to do is believe Jesus died for our sins, but what actually attracted Shellenberger was how hard the Christian faith was.

When he looked at the anger and divisions that are starting to break apart American society, Shellenberger realized that Christ’s message that we needed to love our enemies was the solution.

But loving your enemies is hard.

“What’s the remedy for this intense hatred and anger against civilizations? And I was like, ‘It’s love, obviously,’” Shellenberger told Rogan. “Loving your enemies is, for me, what Christianity is about. It’s the heart of Christianity.”

At this moment, Rogan interjected the word “forgiveness.”

Because aside from loving our enemies and those who have offended us, one of Christ’s main messages is that we need to forgive. We need to forgive our enemies.

To which, Shellenberger responded.

“Forgiveness. It’s really, really hard,” Shellenberger added. “And so, for me, it was like, I’m interested in having a faith that’s hard, not easy. If it were easy, what’s the point? It’s got to make you better in some way.”

Shellenberger has a valid point. For too long modern Christians have lived with easy believism, but when we look at the persecution the early church faced in the Book of Acts, their faith was hard.

There was a cost to believing in Christ.

READ: Michael Shellenberger tells Joe Rogan he returned to Christianity in response to societal ‘hatred, anger’ AND Journalist Reveals to Joe Rogan What Brought Him Back to Christianity: ‘I’m Interested in Having a Faith That’s Hard’