Empty Faith

Carey Scott

“My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you don’t do anything to show that you really do have faith? Can that kind of faith save you?” (James 2:14, CEV).

There are a lot of people going around and calling themselves a Christian. Yet their actions do not confirm their faith. Many that consider themselves as Christians should admit that their everyday actions are more world-like than they need to be. Going to church does not make you a Christian anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car.

The Christian life is one of dedication, devotion, and discipleship. The person of true faith shows it all day, everyday. If the people around you do not know you are a Christian unless you tell them, you are probably not living like one.

How can you claim to be a Christian and allow profanity out of your mouth, or even let it enter your mind? How can you claim your body to be the temple of God, but fill your body with drugs, alcohol, or tobacco? The Christian is to be pure in life, but you practice fornication of all sorts when you get the chance. Friends, do you really have faith? I Corinthians 13:5 tells you to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Take inventory of yourself.

What do you do to prove that you are a Christian? Do the people around you know you are a Christian because it shows in your behavior or only because you have told them? You know the answer. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a donkey, right? NO! It is a duck. Well, if you talk like the world and behave like the world, you must be a Christian, right? NO! You are an enemy of God. James 4:4 tells us that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God.

If you are going to act like the world, then do us a favor and stop calling yourself a Christian. Such behavior reflects on everyone who is truly a Christian, and your hypocrisy allows the atheist and agnostic to criticize all Christians as being phony or empty.