A Final Word About Authentic Christian Faith

There are those who periodically put before every pastor a printout of the attendance record. And every month we see the financial statistics. I don't see anywhere in the Bible that the size of weekly attendance and the size of offering are listed as indexes of spiritual vitality. When we step into the presence in the day of believers' judgment I see no index in the Bible that He will respond something like this: "Well, done, you saints at St. Andrew's. In twenty-five years you grew your budget from $500,000 to over $2,000,000, plus paid off an additional $16.5 million building program. I am a bit concerned that a couple of those years you did not end in the black, and that there are times when your attendance plateaued and even slipped a bit."

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No, you will find nothing like that in the Bible.

Instead, we are told to look forward to that day when Jesus looks into our eyes and says, "Well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter your eternal rest!"

I remember those early years of my ministry here when I was, with great regularity, compared negatively to the preaching of other popular megachurch preachers, who were funnier, more entertaining, brighter, more scintillating. Every pastor I know feels the pain of being compared to someone else who has a different set of gifts, someone else who is blessed to have a dynamic radio or television ministry. Thank God for all expressions that are faithful to Jesus Christ. But never compromise and major on minors to look good and avoid persecution for the sake of the Cross of Jesus Christ and faithfulness to God's Word. Paul observes that some of the Galatians are emphasizing the externals of such things such as circumcision for the wrong reasons: "The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ" (Galatians 6:12).

Faithfulness to Jesus Christ does not produce an easy life. In fact, the people we most admire have paid a price for faithfulness.

I love these words of Mother Teresa: "I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much."

Final Word Three: Authentic Christian faith is not hypocritical.

Paul writes in Galatians 6:13, "Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh."

At this point, Paul simply tells it as it is. He said, "This whole circumcision matter is a smoke screen. These Judaizers are hypocrites. They are trying to make you Gentiles become circumcised like they are to avoid persecution, to get along with the Romans, not because it is essential to being a faithful Jews. If being faithful Jews is what they are so concerned about, they would take more seriously the rest of the teachings of the law. They just want to use you."

How different is sincere, authentic faith expression.