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You know what? I’m tired of crap.
I’m tired of us rationalizing things. I’m tired of us trying to balance our lives with the “perfect amount” of “everything.”
I’m tired of Christians who talk the talk but won’t walk the walk. I’m tired of half-in, lukewarm “followers.”
I’m tired of hypothetical Christians. Of Christians who say things but don’t do them. Who go up to a retreat and cry and sing songs of praise and “recommit” their lives but don’t really change.
I’m tired of the sin, of the hypocrisy, of the confusion. I’m tired of so-called Christians not really following Jesus.
And this isn’t where I break down and console you. This isn’t where I tell you I sin too, so it’s okay. This is not the place where I say, “Well God probably doesn’t actually want you to give up this or that.” And this is not where I tell you it’s okay but you need to improve in a soft, gentle voice.
Paul said, “I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!” (Galatians 5:12). And Jesus said, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
Stop living in the world, being of the world.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
Stop making those inappropriate jokes. Stop swearing. Stop supporting the LGBT community. Stop supporting feminism. Stop being lazy. Stop “roasting” others at their expense. Stop gossiping.
And, start sharing the Gospel with people. Start sacrificing your time. Start doing devotions everyday. Do them twice a day. Read the Bible for hours, pray, cry out to God, fall on your knees, lift up your hands. And sometimes, just stop, and come before the Lord and listen.
And yeah, I sin. But that doesn’t make it right. That doesn’t mean anything.
The issue I have isn’t simply Christians sinning. The issue I mostly have is self-proclaimed Christians living in sin. In 1 John 2:3-6, John writes,
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
I’m sick of lukewarm Christianity. Of “Christianity” that tries to throw the Law out the window. That tries to distort the Word of God. That opens everything up for interpretation. That advocates self-love, self-devotion, and self-esteem.
I’m sick of prosperity Gospel preaching, of heretical teaching, and of “Christians” living like everybody else.
You do sports or homework instead of attending youth group. You hang out with school friends, not Christian ones. You wear a metal cross around your neck, but you’re hardly willing to take up your own (Matthew 16:24). Talking about sacrifice is pretty easy. Actually sacrificing in real life is not so much that way.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Matthew 16:24-26
The sacrifice is so worth it. And it’s demanded.
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-33
I’m tempted to try and rationalize with you that Jesus didn’t really mean this or that, it was just hyperbole, etc. Any number of those things could be true. But are we “rationalizing” in order to make ourselves more comfortable or to glorify God? That’s the question.
Yeah, I mess up. Yeah, I fail. So what? I need to do better, sure. But you probably do too.
So do better.
And give thanks to God and know it’s Him. But, like I mentioned in my last post, we must fear the LORD through it all, yet we have lost that in our society and even largely amongst “Christians.”
So, are you gonna sacrifice it all, or are you going to rationalize?
Do you choose to tithe 10% percent because that’s what was required by Old Testament Law, or are you going to give everything you have like the poor widow? (Mark 12:43-44). It’s not 10% God’s money and 90% yours. It’s all His. It’s not for spending on your own selfish desires, or your own splurges, or any crap like that. It’s God’s.
‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44
You see, the value of God’s Kingdom is so incredibly great that it doesn’t matter the cost. It’s worth far more than anything we could ever give.
But what about 1 Corinthians 7:24?
So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
That doesn’t mean you don’t change your life. That doesn’t mean you give up some things that aren’t glorifying or honoring God. That doesn’t mean you don’t risk getting fired so you can go on a missions trip. That doesn’t mean you don’t pull an all-nighter when you have work or school the next day because you feel compelled to study the Word of God for 9 hours straight.
This also does not mean that you can keep spending your money however you want. It doesn’t mean you can keep hanging out with the same friends all the time. It does not mean that God doesn’t want you to become involved in a certain ministry. It doesn’t necessarily mean God doesn’t want you to sell your house and live out of your car because someone else could use the money more.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:17,
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.
So do you drop everything and become a missionary? Maybe. I don’t make the judgements here, God does. I don’t know your heart, nor do I necessarily know God’s plans for you.
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:4
But, I can tell you what the Bible says is sin. I can relay the word of Jesus to you. I can tell you what God demands and expects of His people.
Jesus said,
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
And Paul writes,
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Do not live in sin any longer. Be done with it.
James the brother of Jesus says,
But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
James 2:18-26
Don’t get caught up in the world’s lies. Follow Jesus. He is all that we need.
But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Jude 1:17-23
*All quotations are taken from the ESV
In Love Right 