‘Christians’ are a dime a dozen these days. Anybody can claim to be one. And in a political climate where it’s advantageous to make such a claim, the number of counterfeits popping up has never been greater. But amidst a sea of fakes and frauds using ‘faith’ to mask ambitions of greed, the number of real Christians… people who actually live like the historical Jesus of the Bible… is sorely lacking. And in this article, I want to quickly examine why that is.
For starters, let’s define what it means to be a Christian. Despite the popularity of yardsticks like respectability, smile size, or even wealth, the Bible tells us a true Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the first disciples of Jesus were first called ‘Christians’ while bunched together in a big city called Antioch. (Acts 11:26) So a Christian is a disciple of Jesus.
Jesus gave many instructions to His disciples, and even laid out some prerequisites. They are more numerous than I wish to delve into in this article, and yet one of the most fundamental (and oft-ignored) is simply this: you can’t be a Christian if you don’t forsake all you own. (Luke 14:33) Virtually no church on the planet that I’m aware of actively teaches this to their congregation. And that (amongst other reasons) is one of the main reasons Christianity is dying today.
In the Gospels, we hear Jesus share some heavenly insights around salt, a multi-use seasoning/preservative/disinfectant of great value at the time (and still very useful today!). Jesus called His followers the salt of the earth, and said if the salt loses its flavor, it’s no longer good for anything. (Matthew 5:13) The ‘church’ today has lost most of its flavor. And it is finding its usefulness dwindling rapidly as a result.
But the real question is how exactly that happened. How did the church lose its flavor? Apart from it being predicted (in the Bible), I would argue that it boils down to this: distancing itself from the actual teachings of Jesus. Let me explain.
Walk into any church today, and you will hear a variety of things. “Praise and worship” shouted from the rooftops. Long sermons around the epistles of Paul, or the proverbs of the great king Solomon. Or even eloquent recitals of some of the great psalms of king David. But what won’t you hear? A sermon dedicated to the actual teachings of Jesus. Teachings like give to those who ask, call no man ‘Father’, love your enemies, or sell all you have to help the poor. Those sort of teachings. Churches avoid them like the plague. And they’re losing their flavor (rapidly) as a result.
So if that’s the problem, what, you might ask, is the solution? Simple: get back to the actual words of the Master. Get back to the Cornerstone. Accept the fact that if we love the Lord, we will obey Him (John 14:15); and that it’s pointless to call Him ‘Lord’ if we’re not going to do what He says. (Luke 6:46)
That’s it. Or rather, that’s more like the start, as most will find that as they seek to obey Jesus – to put their faith into practice – He opens up a new world of revelation for them they had never known until they started to obey. But that will never happen until we actually start listening to what He said, and then start seeking to live them like it was God Himself speaking to us. Because He has, through Jesus. And if the church is to stop the aggressive slide it’s making toward irrelevance, it will only come through doing just that.
Reclaiming The Way 