The world is full of nominal Christians, people who profess Jesus with their lips but ignore Him with their lives. There is a very good chance both you and I fall into this category. We would never think it of ourselves and probably are denying it even now. But the truth is we are more than likely not living our lives fully devoted to Him.
A.W. Tozer said, “Believing in Him, we will seek to crucify our flesh and put on the new man which is renewed in holiness. That kind of faith in God is all but gone. When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)?
Have we really crucified our selfish desires? Are our thoughts constantly focused on Jesus or on ourselves? I shudder to think of the percentage of time I am focused on myself as compared to being focused on God and others. How can we claim Jesus is our Lord and carry on the same as everyone else in our culture? We aspire to the same creature comforts and levels of success as our neighbors. Do they even know we are followers of Christ? Have we given them any reasons to think Jesus is our Lord?
What would our lives look like if we took the call of Jesus seriously? What changes would we need to make in order to surrender everything to Him? We’re so good at playing the Christianity game, but fail miserably in living out the life Jesus commands us to live. There’s no such thing as a casual relationship with Jesus. We must begin treating our walk with Christ as if our life depended on it because it most certainly does. We can’t just worship God in our thirty minutes of quiet time in the morning or praise Him with a quick prayer before slipping off to sleep.
Living for Jesus is done with every moment of our lives or it isn’t done at all. He is everything to us or He is nothing to us. Until we recognize everything we want in life is only Jesus, we haven’t yet understood the commitment He requires of us. He created us to love and worship Him. Nothing else. We are His image bearers in a very dark world. The situation is far too dangerous and time is far too short for half-hearted efforts on our part.
Nominal Christians are those who think life is all about being happy and finding enjoyment in their lives while professing Jesus as their Savior. I honestly don’t know what becomes of them when they face Christ. I only know I don’t want to take the chance of finding out. Jesus calls you and me to a life wholly devoted to Him, to live fully surrendered to Him, and to fall completely and unconditionally in love with Him. In exchange, He comes and lives inside us. He is with us in every moment of our lives. And He will shepherd us safely from this life to the next. There is no greater joy than Jesus, no greater pleasure than Christ. It’s time we stopped fooling ourselves and surrendered everything to Him. It’s time we start living what we say we believe.