I have been
sick with sinus infection for the past two days. So, I am going to keep it
short.
When you are a
possessor of the faith God’s Word is perfect in your eyes. No need for
duplicity, no need to find loopholes and you carefully examine the Scriptures
with your heart and the goal is to submit to His Word. Christ becomes more
precious to you than everything else and you are guided solely by His Word. You
walk in the truth with a spirit of submission because your life is His to do
what He wants with. His plan and goal for your life are what matters to you. You
also understand His Word from His point of view because you know Him. Over the years, you keep decreasing as if you
are disappearing while He is getting bigger and bigger in your life. Hence I
must decrease He must increase. If you want me to make it simple, you are a
possessor of the faith and you are living true Christianity when you have taken
Christ within.
The best way I
can explain what a professor of the faith looks like is to give you an example.
I know a family
who has been Christians for decades and decades. We are talking about thirty
years and more. After all these years of bible reading, prayers, serving in the
Church, going to the mission field etc they are no where close to possess
Christ. They all have hard hearts; they lie to each and other people as easily as
they breathe. There is a callousness of consciences that is hard to watch. There
is a darkness of the soul that comes out in the things they do, that you cannot
help wondering how on earth they have not noticed that unbelievers are better human
being than them. They are still counting on God’s love to make it to heaven and
the fact that they said the sinner’s prayer.
While this is
one example of how this family is living a Christless Christianity, for some of
us it is more subtle. However, we can recognize where we are if we do not
recall at any point that Christ has increased in us while the self has
decreased. If we have no recollection of having conquered the evil self chances
are it did not happen. We still have bitterness, bad temper, greed, jealousies
and all that is associated with the flesh are prevalent in our heart. Your life
is self willed, you are uncommitted, and you are living with a spirit of
disobedience. You fit the picture of those who are twice dead as mentioned in
Jude.
