“For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.” (James 5:4-5 NLT)
Who we are at home and at work is generally the telltale evidence of who we really are; how genuine or fake our walk with Jesus really is. It’s easy to slide in and out of church (on the days we choose to go), playing the part, smiling and acting “nice,” but come Monday morning the real us climbs into our work duds and heads out to be the people we really are.
Pastor Corky Calhoun said: “You can fake being a Christian, but you cannot fake being a follower of Jesus.” As I read and pondered his quote I first thought: “Aren’t they one and the same?” And yes, they should be, but “Christian” has gotten watered down and bundled up with other terms we use to define religious people who may or may not be a follower of Jesus.
Our goal as a Jesus follower is to become like Jesus. It’s not enough for us to be a “good” person or a “hard worker,” or “a great family man/woman.” Don’t you want everything you say, do, or are to exalt Jesus in unmistakable ways? What’s the point of calling ourselves a “Christian” or even a “Jesus follower” unless He gets the credit for who we are, how we think, and what we do with our life?
But how do you do that without coming across as a “goodie two shoes?” You do it the same way Jesus did. He was genuine in and out and He never wavered from being exactly who God the Father desired Him to be. “But we’re not Jesus!” And you’re right, but every day we walk with Him can and should enable us to become more genuine and less subject to wavering in our own lives.
We’re not perfect and won’t be until we go home to be with the Lord forever, but in the meantime, we have His Holy Spirit indwelling us. Shouldn’t that matter? Shouldn’t that account for significant progress in how much we look and act like Jesus?
The point is, if we’re faking being a believer in Jesus, it’s not only going to be those who know us best and work with us the closest who will know that. WE WILL know it! How does that translate? Hypocrite! Isn’t that essentially, at its core what a “fake” is? Someone who professes one thing, but lives in a way that doesn’t represent what their words about themselves convey?
But another consideration can be, maybe they just don’t know any better. What if they just haven’t been taught how to live like a Jesus follower? Before we start branding people and writing them off, shouldn’t we come alongside them and see if they’re open to changing? It’s one thing to be a con, but quite another to be uninformed or untrained in the ways of Jesus.
The best way to help someone change isn’t to condemn them, but to love them like Jesus would and does. None of us are perfect, thus all of us think, do, say, and act in ways that aren’t becoming of a disciple of Jesus. So, what can we do? Fess up! Confess our shortcomings – to Jesus, our spouse, a trusted friend, then seek inch by inch to move in the direction of being all we were saved to become, all we truly WANT to become!
Isn’t that what repentance is? It’s recognizing our need to change, changing our mind about what we want the outcome to be, then putting into action a Jesus-centered plan to make the needed changes to become the new creation Jesus died to enable us to become.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 