In my youth, I met a brother who could be described as nothing short of impressive. He cut a fine figure as he sat proudly with his family in church on Sundays. Add to that, good looks, a tailored suit, and an effective Bible teaching style, and, by all appearances, you had a man to be looked up to. Tragically, everything proved to be but a façade. His true character surfaced, and we all witnessed his faith, family and fellowship simultaneously disintegrate. It was truly heart-breaking.
We are caused to wonder how Christians who “have it all” can so easily cast it aside. It seems that having the best of God’s blessings, within and without, is never enough for them.
But as much as we might wonder, we cannot long be surprised. After all, Satan has always cashed in on man’s willingness to reach for that which is forbidden.
I believe that there is within us all the potential for an even deeper problem—that of having an arm’s length faith. We know that those entering Christian life are vested with the host of blessings inherent in church life. Being surrounded by people of faith and virtue takes a person a long way to being a decent human being—but it doesn’t automatically mean that any real faith exists.
Jesus was surrounded by believers in God. To one degree or another, they all had the trappings of faith (they all looked the part), but they couldn’t see the Messiah, even though he was standing in front of them.
Jesus offered a simple solution to their arm’s length faith problem: “Want to do the will of God and you will know who I really am!”
Or to say it as he did:
“If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself” (John 7:17).
John Staiger
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