God’s Opinion of Casual Christians
Sunday, November 17, 2019
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”
Revelation 3:14–17
We are surrounded by voices that tell us not to take our faith so seriously. Some of those come from the culture, while others are even inside the church. We’re called fanatics if we hold fast to what the Bible teaches. In response, some people have toned down their faith, sanding away the rough edges that would bring them into conflict with our culture. They still profess to be following Jesus, but they do not challenge the world the way that He did.
Vance Havner wrote, “The cause of Christ has been hurt more by Sunday-morning benchwarmers who pretend to love Christ, who call Him Lord but do not His commands, than by all the publicans and sinners. They glory in being disciples of the Lowest Common Denominator. They traffic in unfelt truth and refuse to get excited over religion. How many nice, comfortable, lovely people rest smilingly in church pews, their conscience drugged, their wills paralyzed, in self-satisfied stupor, utterly unconscious of their danger.”
The Bible paints a very vivid picture of God’s opinion of this kind of living—as being something so disgusting that it is only fit to be vomited out. We may be comfortable with a casual faith that does not produce anything of value, but God is revolted by it. He calls and commands us to love Him with our entire being.
Today's Growth Principle:
God’s children should be passionate about loving and serving Him in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment