Casual Faith

Why are many churches attracting fewer members and are becoming less significant in society? One reason must be that many who still call themselves Christians are casual about their faith – it is no longer a priority. Many who have a faith ‘ do it their way’.

Nabab and Abihu were brothers who both made the same terrible mistake. They were the sons of Aaron, the High Priest of Israel, and nieces of Moses. They were destined for greatness – or so they thought. Their problem, however, was that they treated God with disdain. They developed their own way of worshipping God. It seemed such an interesting idea to add some incense to clay censers and put some fire into them. They had just witnessed the fire from God consuming a burnt offering on the altar so perhaps they wanted to use this image using their fire to influence others. They treated the Almighty God in a casual way and thought their fire was somehow similar. The result was catastrophic. Fire came down from the Lord and destroyed them both. Subsequently the Lord explained to Moses why he had done this:

“Among those who approach me, I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honoured.” Leviticus 10:3

God had provided a way for his people to have the status of being ‘righteous’ through the sacrificial offerings but this was meant to produce a people who were eager to follow God’s ways.

Today some, who may even call themselves Christians, seem to think that they can breeze into the presence of God on their own terms. Christian worship can easily become what people enjoy, whether it is the emotional high of beautiful liturgical services, the vibrancy of contemporary ‘worship music’ or simply the friendships found in a church community. These can become what we call ‘worship’ but there is a danger of them becoming like the censers of Nabab and Abihu – our way of worshipping God, not his.

Didn’t Jesus say to his disciples,

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8

The fact that God has now provided a final sacrifice for our sin does not negate the need for repentance by all people who hope to benefit from Christ’s death. The writer of the book of Hebrews stresses that Christians will be disciplined and explains why?

“God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. . . Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees!” Hebrews 12:10-12

There is only one way to worship God and that is ‘his way’. God means for his people to share his holiness. A life of repentance involves turning away from the old way of selfish thinking to a determined lifestyle, living for Jesus Christ.

When Peter wrote his final letter to Christians he was very concerned about the casual nature of some Christians. He begins the letter by reminding them that they have been saved through all that Jesus had done for them. On this basis no-one, not even an apostle, is ‘more saved’ than anyone else. The only way to be saved is to belong to Christ.

However he them discusses the responsibilities of Christians:

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8

Peter longs for all Christians to become ‘effective’ and ‘productive’. He longs to see all Christians making an impact for Christ and helping others come to faith in him. The only way this will happen is if we abandon a casual approach to our faith and begin to work at it.

Some years ago I was invited to lead a series of six mid-week evening talks on Christian Basics by a large local Roman Catholic church. By the end around 120 were attending. After the first talk an Irish lady came up to thank me effusively, adding,

“I don’t know why everybody isn’t a Christian.”

I felt quite chuffed at this response, but then she added,

“After all, all God wants is one hour a week!”

What an anti-climax. She had clearly understood nothing about the glory of Christ that we had been talking about. Her idea of worship was wrong. All Christians must ‘make every effort’ to add to our saving faith in Christ. ‘Goodness’ is that outgoing kindness and generosity that is the nature of God himself, Christians must start living this way. Knowledge about God and his communication with us through the Scriptures is the basis of our faith but must be deepened. There is no other way than through constantly reading and studying these Scriptures. Christians who are casual about regularly attending a church where the Scriptures are taught well, who don’t bother to join a Bible Study group and who fail to read the Bible each day for themselves are certainly failing to ‘make every effort’.

Self-control involves learning to keep our selfish ambitions and desires in check. It involves a determined mindset. When Paul wrote to Titus, at the centre of the letter (chapter 2) he stressed the need for self control. Older men need to be taught to be ‘self-controlled’. Older women were to train younger women to be ‘self-controlled’. The first directive for young men is ‘to be self-controlled’. Paul summarises this section with the reminder:

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” Titus 2:11-12

The next feature that Peter urges Christians to work at is ‘perseverance’. Keeping going is a result of a mindset. In an African primary school, the children were asked to write a poem about the Christian life and then recite it to the class. When his turn came a young lad stood up and confidently read,

“If you would be a Christian you must go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on . . .”

. . . and so he continued. The message is the same – perseverance must be a feature in all Christians’ lives, we should all be regularly involved in the means of grace and of service for our Lord that are available to us. This is surely what ‘Make every effort’ means.

God-likeness or ‘godliness’ must be our ambition. It sounds like a very high ambition but Peter began this section by reminding us:

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him . . .” 2 Peter 1:3

This godliness must be very practical so that Christians become known for their love for one another – brotherly kindness and love will be apparent.

These qualities require hard work but, if we persevere in developing these,

“. . . they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus.” 2 Peter 1:8

Unfortunately Peter knew that there would always be half-hearted Christians and this is how he describes them:

“But if anyone does not have them, he is short sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been forgiven his past sins.” 2 Peter 1:9

They are short-sighted because their focus is only on this life, they have forgotten that the real life is still to come, they are blind to the realities Jesus spoke to us about.

Fortunately we have many examples of godly men and women around us who continue to encourage us to ‘press on’. Paul repeated urged the early Christians to use him as a model as he copied the life of Jesus. He wrote to the weak Corinthian church:

“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some . . . do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:22-24

We are not just to be concerned for ourselves. Just as in a football team it is essential that everyone plays their part, so in the church we are responsible for others. Paul again gave us an example in this:

“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Colossians 1:29

Today many are far more devoted to their football club that christians are to their Lord or their church. The manager of Liverpool Football club, Bill Shankly, once infamously said,

“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much more important than that. “

There used to be a popular phrase bandied around by Christians, ‘Let go, let God’. This is true for our justification, how we have been put right with God, but it is certainly not true for our sanctification, becoming like Christ and being useful for him. Sanctification demands perseverance, self control and hard work.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer discussed the problem of ‘cheap grace’ in his book, ‘The Cost of Discipleship’. He emphasised the apostles’ teaching when we wrote,

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

The grace of God that accepts sinful people into his kingdom is indeed free, but we are alsocalled to repent, to obey our Lord and to serve him, whatever the cost to us in this life.

BVP

June 2023