May God forbid that we slouch into a posture of Christianity that accepts lethargy and mediocrity. There should never be any acceptance of slacking off. To the one who has shrunk-wrapped their Christian experience down to themselves, it is not about you! Consider who God is and respond to him. Look around and see your church family. Consider their need of your obedience. And look around at the world that is hungry and hurting. They need to see the way out, the way home.

Over the last 15 or so years of being a Christian I’ve observed a recurring trend. When I ask someone how I can be praying for them I often hear about a need to be more faithful with spiritual disciplines (Bible reading, prayer, etc). In most of these conversations the believer talks like he/she is a soloist. While they know that spiritual laziness is wrong it seems to be mitigated by the appearance of it being contained and ok. While it is not ideal it is not a big deal. Who are we hurting, after all, when we don’t read our pray? Who suffers when my eyes are glued to Netflix and my Bible gathers dust? What’s the big deal about me not coming to Sunday worship? There is a pervasive downplaying of the overall impact of our obedience and our disobedience.

The bottom-line is that your obedience as a Christian is not just for you. And therefore, you disobedience does not simply impact you.

It’s About God

Our lives function as our own statement of our theology. What we do communicates what we believe. When we say that we love the gospel but don’t forgive people or exercise patience we betray our gospel confession. When we don’t pray we communicate a lack of faith in God, a diminished view of his goodness, and an inflated view of ourselves. It is true that our theology determines our lives. But it is also true that our lives communicate our true theology. Therefore, how we order our lives communicates what we believe about God. Is he truly of infinite worth? Is it true that in his presence there is fullness of joy? Do we really believe the hymns and worship songs we sing on Sundays? God’s glory doesn’t go up or down because we honor him. He is not like an iPhone coming off the charger that needs to be recharged. He is infinitely glorious in his person. Theologians call this his intrinsic glory. However, when we respond to God with worshipful obedience we are giving glory to him. That is we are ascribing glory to the One who is infinitely glorious. We are saying that this is true! And to disobey is to say it is false. You can’t blunt the edge off of this. How we live has vertical implications.

It’s About Your Church

There are also horizontal implications. The Christian life is intended to be lived our in community or in the context of other believers. We are to forgive, forebear, exercise patience, love, and care for one another even as we teach, admonish, exhort, and serve one another (cf. Gal. 6:1-2; Eph. 4:1-2; Col. 1:28-29, Col. 3:16; Heb. 3:13; etc). What is the impact of you not reading your Bible, skipping out on the preaching of the Word, dozing off during the Lord’s Table, or neglecting prayer? Your church family will suffer.

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