7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.”9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
—The words of the Apostle Paul from Ephesians 4:7-16
One of the saddest traits of the modern American evangelical church is that largely it has adopted the culture of our decadent society. Oh, the church has been quite careful to craft this adoption of culture in terms that paint over some of the most overt aspects of depravity. Largely, however, the thinking that motivates decisions within the body of Christ—the church—have as much to do with appearances, acquisition of material possessions, presenting the “right” image to the watching world, as it has to do with obedience to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even as our American culture has become increasingly passive, so the church has become passive, as well. This passivity is seen most clearly on the preferential willingness of modern American Christians to give money to help the poor and needy, rather than get down into the trenches and put some skin in the game by directly and personally reaching out to those in need. It shows itself in the willingness to purchase pre-packaged programs to teach our children and teens, rather than to invest the kind of time necessary to study God’s Word so that we can teach our young people without someone else preparing a lesson plan.
Far too many Sunday School teachers spend their preparation time cutting out craft items related to the Bible story than studying the Bible story and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach them so they can teach their students.
We’ve become so passive in our culture that we would rather watch sports than participate in sports. We would rather watch how to prepare meals than get into the kitchen and prepare meals of our own. We would rather load the car up and head for the nearest amusement park than sit around a table and learn games that help us bond as a family.
“Sounds like you’re pretty old fashioned to me,” you may respond.
I think I need to plead guilty to that charge. But part of my old-fashioned ways comes from longing for a time when we moved through life at a far less frenetic pace. Today, we have allowed “activities” to take the place personal development and collegial interaction. Many, many evangelical Christian families today have their children involved in every conceivable sports teams, drama classes, dance classes, tennis lessons, golf lessons, skating lessons, gymnastics, and on and on. I assert that none of these activities have value compared to what’s been lost because families don’t spend quality time together.
If you have to choose to set aside church youth group in favor of soccer games, then your priorities are mixed up. If you choose to take your child or teen out of youth choir, so they can participate in the latest community musical theater, you are sacrificing things that have eternal value for things that have only the most fleeting, temporal value.
In our passivity, we have become a frantic people. We rush here, there, and everywhere trying to capture a sense of well-being that only comes from genuine investment in real hard work and real family fellowship. We have substituted the appearance of action for actual action.
In the Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post, the Apostle Paul tells us that God has given gifts of forthtelling His truth—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—for a very definite purpose: “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” In other words, passively sitting in church every week, listening—or not—to the sermon does not bring you to a place of Christ-likeness in your spiritual development.
You are listening and learning and enfleshing the truth of God’s Word so that you can serve! You are not being mentored to sit and passively watch the world go by. Nor are you being mentored to passively flow from one frantic activity to another—never having time to actually do anything. Rather, far too many evangelical Christians simply spend all their time moving from one activity to another without any real investment of who they are in those many activities.
If my blog post seems too harsh for you today—toughen up! Living for Jesus is hard work. It’s tough to live a life of obedience to Christ. It’s difficult to bend your will to God’s will. But, the rewards of doing so are simply overwhelming.
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
Precious Father, we plead with You to help us set aside our passivity. We want to become active believers who actually do the work in this world to which You have called us. We want to stop following the culture of this world. We want to stop trying to emulate the American culture within the walls of our churches.
More than anything, Father, we want to live lives that are pleasing to You. We want to grow in our awareness of Your leading in our lives. We want to follow more closely the pathway You have laid out for us. We want to become people who stand out, not because of success as the world measures success, but because we have invested all of ourselves into following You.
Thank You for giving us wise counsel through the testimony of Your Word. And, thank You for hearing our prayer in and through the precious Name of Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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