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Is It More Important To Be a Christian Or A Good Person?

Is It More Important To Be a Christian Or A Good Person?

Last updated on: August 25, 2026 at 8:14 pm by Duncan Edward Pile

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Is It More Important To Be a Christian Or A Good Person? 2026-08-25T20:14:39+01:00 Duncan Edward Pile

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To your average person, the answer to this question is simple – being a good human being is far more important than subscribing to a particular faith. For many Christians, however, the answer is not so simple.

Those who believe in eternal conscious torment (burning forever in hell) would have to say it’s more important to be a Christian than a good person. How could it not be? According to their theology, an individual can be loving to those around them for their entire life and still be tortured without end after death if they haven’t given their heart to Christ. I remember the day a missionary organization came to our church and performed a dramatization.

Two young women were driving along, having fun. One was a Christian and one was not. They suffered a fatal crash (ain’t church fun?) and woke up in the afterlife. The ‘non-Christian’ was curious about where they were and what would happen, and the Christian excitedly told them all about Heaven. The ‘non-Christian’ became excited too, until the Christian told them they couldn’t come along. Just then, demons (young missionaries in black clothing and masks) emerged from the background and grabbed the ‘non-Christian’ by her limbs. As she was dragged off to Hell, she screamed, ‘WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?’

For a Christian who believes in eternal conscious torment (ECT), being a Christian has to be far more important than being a good person, because being a Christian is the only way to escape (and help others escape) the unending horror of hell. Christians who believe in ECT are caught in a high-intensity escape room with unthinkable consequences for failure.

Everything changes when you reject ECT

A belief in hell messes with Christians’ sense of proportion. If we’re more invested in the afterlife than the one we’re currently living, we inevitably prioritize what we believe will get us and others to Heaven over what people need right here, right now. Of course, we might provide immediate assistance through charitable giving, but it’s hard to separate giving aid from the secret hope that the individual might see the goodness of God in our kindness and give their life to Jesus, thereby escaping hell.

I used to be a missionary, and that tension was ever-present. We weren’t just there to show love; we were there to save souls. I would give money to the homeless but felt obliged to mention Jesus as my reason, hoping it would sow a seed in their hearts that would eventually lead to conversion. The simplest way to define this is conditional love.

Once you stop worrying about others’ eternal destiny, they become people again rather than potential converts. A veil is lifted from our eyes and we see their needs in simple terms – a need for friendship, perhaps, or any other form of support. And when we meet those needs, we do so from a place of care without ‘spiritual’ complications. In those moments, we live out the Gospel without trying to do so. We give our love freely from a place of care, which flows from our experience of divine love. We accept others because we know what it feels like to be accepted by God. Our giving, our caring, and our love become organic, and we bless others without all the spiritual scaffolding getting in the way.

‘Spiritual’ distractions from love

There are all kinds of activities that are considered Christian but which hinder us from living simple, loving lives, such as speculating about the end times. I remember the hours spent picking through the details in Daniel and Revelation with my church youth group, and arguing about the rapture. These days, I believe that the rapture is a modern theological invention that wasn’t a twinkle in Jesus’ eye, but as a young person in a Reformed church, I was taught it was explicitly laid out in the Bible and could happen at any time. This wasn’t good for my well-being, and kept me distracted from focusing on what was in front of me – living life to the fullest, rejoicing in it, and loving others.

Similarly, friends of mine in the youth group gave up their hobbies and passions to focus their energies on the Lord – why be passionate about your hobby if Jesus is coming back soon? With few exceptions, we threw out our vinyl, tapes, and CDs, convinced that doing so would purify our minds. We became less than we should have been, which in turn affected our development as young adults. Being a Christian actually made me less colorful, less interesting, and less happy, which limited my ability to befriend and love ‘non-Christians’, who were put off by my intensity. I had less love to give, which is never how a healthy faith expresses itself.

These days I attend a church community with progressive theology and a focus on inclusion. Much of what we do happens in a social context, and we don’t burden ourselves with unhelpful expectations or indulge in pseudo-spiritual obsessions. We get on with the business of loving each other and welcoming anyone who wants to join in. After decades of feeling constricted by heavy religious environments, it’s like taking a deep, cleansing breath. Having shed burdens and removed obstacles, being a Christian and being a good person have become the same thing – pursuing a life of love.

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