One of you will betray me. That’s what Jesus said to his closest followers in the upper room. It immediately caused a stir in the hearts of most. “Is it I?” they asked. Peter professed he would never deny Jesus, yet he did three times in one evening. And we do too, you and I. We deny our faith – daily.
In 1 Timothy 5, Paul describes how real believers are to live with respect to others. It’s a call for self-examination for each of us. Do we:
Lift up and honor older men and women as our fathers and mothers? Or do we ignore them or mock them?
Treat younger men and women as our sisters, with purity and respect? Or do we look down on them?
Give proper recognition to widows and respond to their real needs? Or do we ignore them?
Practice real “religion” by caring for our families? Or are we so busy helping everyone else we ignore those closest to us?
Not caring for others is “to deny the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (v8)
We deny our faith every time we honor and serve ourselves before others. Every time we believe lies about life being all for us and our comfort, we deny our faith. We deny our faith when we lift up sports idols and influential leaders, eager to memorize statistics and fill our minds with all sorts of trivia, yet are reluctant to dwell on God’s Word. We deny our faith when we gossip and slander, when we show favoritism, and when we ignore the needs of those around us because we are too busy to notice. We deny our faith when our allegiance to worldly organizations comes before allegiance to God. We deny our faith when we fail to set up boundaries that keep our thinking and behaviors pure. We deny our faith every time we decide to worry and fret instead of turning to God’s Word and trusting him.
If you’re feeling a bit uncomfortable with this, so am I. I fall short every day. The bible is an offensive book. It offends my sense of pride and self-righteousness. But the point of this wonderfully offensive word is not to shame us or condemn us to judgment. The intent is for us to recognize our wayward ways and turn back to God. The point is to open our eyes in the middle of our daily busyness and struggles and look to Jesus. The point is to turn from a life that pays lip service to our faith an hour a week or a few minutes each day and instead to be transformed by the life-changing power of God to live each day fully awake, fully alive, and focused on affirming the faith in what we truly believe and how we act.
The opposite of denying faith is to affirm it. Believe it and act as if you believe it. Instead of despair, choose hope. Instead of tearing others down, let your faith build them up. Faith doesn’t give in to worry; it stands firm in God’s promises. Faith isn’t blind; it’s living with eyes wide open to all God is ready to reveal to you today – about himself, about your life, and about how you invest yourself in others to accomplish his plan.
We aren’t destined to a faithless life. We aren’t shackled to a half-hearted faith. Today is the day to take a stand, make a commitment to take God at his Word, and to learn what that Word says about everything you think about…everything that fuels your ambitions and everything that causes you to fear.
Yes, the bad news is there are many ways we deny our faith. But the really good news is that God’s Spirit in us is always speaking truth and encouraging us to take a stand and affirm our faith in the daily choices we make. Let’s take God at his Word today and let our faith be real.
