The Lord challenged me today with the notion of “passive Christians” as responsible for passive (irrelevant) Christianity in the world.
I am reminded that the Lord’s own working definition of a Christian is twofold, namely, “light of the world and salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:14-16). A definition with reference to the world and the earth and both are not synonymous with the church. Light and salt are both active, not passive. If so, how could a Christian be passive? In other words, how could the light not shine and how could the salt loose its saltiness?
We understand that light put under a bowel rather than its stand cannot lighten the whole house (Matthew 5:15). And, the salt loses saltiness only when it is covered or corrupted by other indissoluble substances. We can be sure that God will not light a lamp to put it under a bowel nor keep the salt from being salty, simple commonsense, isn’t?
Talking about the purpose of salvation among other things….The more I ponder over the notion of passive Christians, the more I cannot help focusing on the fact that the lamp has its own stand and the bowel is not it. The question is: What is the Christian’s stand? It is interesting to note that in Revelation 1:20 the seven lampstands are the seven churches, most likely evoking the strategic locations (time and space) of the church in the world.
What about the Christian’s saltiness? Here we’re talking about what can keep a Christian from impacting the earth positively or live effectively on earth? I believe worldliness is the Christian’s greatest hindrance.
Interestingly, whilst the church is the Christian’s stand in the world, worldliness keeps him or her from releasing saltiness or live impact fully and effectively on earth or live as to make a difference for good. 1 Corinthians 3:3 comes to mind: “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?”(NIV)….
The greatest challenge the Christian faces in the world is how to live in the world but not as of the world (a stranger on earth) (John 17:14). Simply put, how to live in the world without being worldly? Historically, for most Christians the four walls of the church building ensure protection from worldliness, but this is not so judging from 1 Corinthians 3:3….
Obviously, avoiding worldliness to this extent has resulted in the Christian not using his stand’s (church) strategic location in the world to shine preferring the comfort of the church building (bowel) instead. Here the Christian shines alright but not to lighten the world, yet he or she is the light of the world, not the church. Sad to say, for a significant number of Christians the church building is the only place they’re comfortable expressing their faith…. God help us….
We’re sharing this message to stir us up to wholesome thinking in regards to our identity and calling as Christians in the world, on the earth, especially in these critical times in history. It is a wake up call.
To the church of Ephesus the risen Lord says, “Yet I hold this against you; you have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Revelation 2:4-5)
May the Lord add understanding to his word and help us all.
