I think Christians are better at rationalizing than any other people on earth. It’s easy for us to come up with explanations and excuses why we aren’t living the life God created us to live. We wait to “feel led” and diligently “seek our calling”. We’ll do about anything to avoid doing what Jesus told us to do. If the time we spent running away from our mission was employed actually working for the mission, we might just have completed it by now. Unfortunately the comforts and the cares of this life keep us from selling out and going all in for Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-10 says that God’s grace was given to us in order that we would do the work He gave us to do. We’re not holding up our end of the deal. We got the grace; we have the forgiveness, so we’re good. It feels right. We’re comfortable receiving God’s provision for our eternity. What if we treated those closest to us like we treat Jesus? What if we viewed every relationship only on the basis of what the other person could do for us? Maybe we’d make a token gesture every now and then just to save face or set ourselves up to receive the next thing we wanted. This is how most of us treat our relationship with Christ. It’s not healthy, and it’s not love.
While we can rationalize all we want, the truth of the matter is none of us has any excuse to not give back all that God so generously gave to us. He bestowed a unique combination of talents, passions, and abilities onto each of us. These traits were given so that we might be enabled to perform the work He designed us to do. He wrote a chapter of history just for us, but we must decide whether or not we will choose to participate. In the end, the will of God will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. The role we play in that is entirely up to us; we must choose to obey Him no matter what, or choose to feed our selfishness and leave the work assigned to us for someone else.
Why would any believer not want to be a part of the mission of Christ? What is the purpose of knowing God but abstaining from engaging in relationship with Him? Do you really think that level of commitment will be your one way ticket out of hell? Are we so naïve to believe that our God who sees the heart of men will be fooled by our insincere and lackluster devotion to Him (Matthew 7:21-23)?
A no excuses disciple will choose to follow Jesus and build His kingdom here on earth. They will take the gifts given by God and multiply them (Luke 19:12-27). The no excuses disciple will utilize their talents to feed the hungry, care for the poor, and heal the sick (Matthew 25:31-46). Discipleship is all about not making an excuse; it is about unequivocal devotion. We have no reason to wait to do God’s work. If we are His disciples, we have no excuse.