Here’s some disheartening research concerning the failure of Christians in our day to remain distinct. The study represents thousands of interviews over a number of years with born again Christians. ‘Born again’ Christians are people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. The believe they will go to heaven at death because they have confessed their sins and accepted Christ as their personal Savior, and view this belief as important. This is much more than people who just claim to be Christians and fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral evidence of a transformed life. The study found that most of the lifestyle activities of ‘born again’ Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born again people.
When asked to identify their activities over the last 30 days, born again believers were just as likely to visit a pornographic website; take something that did not belong to them; consult a medium or psychic; physically fight or abuse someone; have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk; used an illegal nonprescription drug; said something to someone that was not true; gotten back at someone for something he or she did; and also to say mean things behind another person’s back.
Jesus left a blueprint for His church that was vast, marvelous and innovative. It’s a living and breathing, expanding organism that would permeate and transform the whole world. The problem is, men and women in the church (followers of Christ) have lost the vision and cannot wrap their minds around such a magnificent plan of loving one another—even though it would bring the light of life in this dark world.
We do what we know best by building buildings, running organizations and developing mega-entertainment centers that would hopefully draw the crowds to hear an emotional message. But we miss the transforming power of Christ.
My weekly prayer is for the reader of this commentary to become spiritually inspired by God. Contact Expressions of Faith at P.O. Box 380127, Nashville, Tenn. 37203; or e-mail <watsonwr68@gmail.com>. God bless!
