Your "Christian" Faith is Too Safe

I've been a Christian for a good number of years now.  I have met a lot of Christians.  We like to do Christian things.  We like to get together and talk about Christianity, about the world in which we live and how in light of that we are to live out our Christian faith.  We like to listen to Christian radio stations.  We have enjoyed reading our Christian books.  We attend our Christian colleges.  And we like to attend church and learn about how to become better Christians.

Now don't hear me wrongly.  The text above probably drips with a certain negativity and births more cynicism in you.  That is not my aim.  Indeed, not all of what is mentioned above is bad, or unnecessary.  My point though is simply to say we have created a culture, our own culture.  And now we begin to measure everything that happens not on reality, but on the reality (culture) that we have created.  

I have found myself lately pondering how much of Christianity, as I have seen it, come to define it, is actually any bit as IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE.  Start with the word itself - Christianity.  It is never used in the Bible.  Not to say that every word we use must be in the Bible.  Or consider the term - Christian.  It occurs no more than three times in the Bible.  Again, not to diminish its spared usage, or to say we should just pitch it.  However, there is a word that is used a bit more often which we need to consider.  The word disciple is used over two-hundred and sixty times in the Bible. 

A disciple was one who followed.  A disciple was one who learned from his master teacher.  A disciple was one who was committed to the very cause of his teacher.  

Oh we are disciples...of SOMETHING.  But I fear our understanding of following, of learning, of commitment are too much concerned with the very culture around us.  And there is a fundamental problem: WE PURSUE COMFORTS.  Comfort is our teacher.  Comfort is the great passion we follow.  And comfort is the ultimate aim of our commitment.

But this is just too safe a faith then that we live.  We love the verse - Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Flipping that from the negative then to the positive would enable us to say that by faith we please God.  And so we look into our heart to ask, "Is there faith in there?"  To which we conclude, "Oh there must be.  I go to church.  I play bass in the band at church.  I got K-LOVE programmed in my car.  I get the latest blog from The Gospel Coalition sent to my phone daily.  I am applying to a Christian college."  And of course while none of us says this, it is a part of our introspective glimpse into our lives to try to identify and find some faith, even a grain.  And this is not to say that we aren't really HIS.  It isn't to say we aren't forgiven, or aren't saved.  If indeed we have faith in Christ, and persevere in this faith in WHAT HE'S DONE, we are HIS. 

Though something must be said.  While faith in Christ does please God and does make us right with Him, it is time we look deeper.  No longer will this glimpse onto but the outer shell of our hearts suffice, assessed simply through the Christian culture of comfort.  We must look deeper.  Hebrews 11 demands it of us.  Our Christian culture doesn't, but our Christian culture isn't the authority.  

In Hebrews 11 we find this great list of those forerunners in the faith.  There we read of Abraham, who left home...by faith.  There we read Abraham offered up his only son Isaac...by faith.  There we read Moses chose to be mistreated with God's people rather than share in all the benefits of being as a child of Pharaoh's daughter...by faith.  Further, we read of those "who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,  quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight." None of this came in the pursuit of comforts.  None of this was safe.  But it is every bit faith, and none of us could deny it.  Consider a bit further:

"Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.  Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

There is nothing comfortable about this.  And THESE are the examples of faith.  These are the examples of what it is to be a disciple.  The risked, they gave, the were mistreated, they were tortured.  They willingly exposed their lives to all this. There is nothing safe about this faith.  But there is everything real, unquestioned, and truly life-giving.   There is nothing easy about this.  This sort of faith is costly, it is scary, it is painful, because it every bit denies the cultural comforts and pursuits that we have so commonly associated with what it is to be a Christian.  But it is time we recognize that this sort of faith is just too safe.  Real, biblical, Christ-following faith, is something entirely different.  It is not safe, but it promises so much more than our comforts do.  

A faith that is seeking only comforts in this life, and is probably indication that the faith in Christ one claims, is likely not saving faith.  A faith though that pursues comforts IN CHRIST, and hopes in a comfort unspeakable in the life with HIM that is to come, is real faith.  Real faith is not safe.  Real faith is not comfortable.  But real faith assures of an eternal safety and comfort.  We need look no further than Christ.  He did not in this life promise any of us comforts and safety.  His very life and death is enough of a glimpse of what seeking to truly please the Father will mean to us.  But He did promise...

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.   - Matthew 5:10-12

So let's risk...by faith  Let's expose our lives to the laughter and torment of others...through faith  Let's give up of what we think we are entitled to for a greater cause...in faith.  Let's willingly put our lives in the way of pains and difficulties...for faith.  Let us lay aside the belief in us that we are to pursue comforts...and by faith believe that there is something greater.   And let's do it all FOR THE SAKE OF CHRIST.  Even so that the nations might know Christ, and the comforts that are to be revealed, which the passing comforts and pains of this life are but a distant memory.