Sincere & Pure Devotion

For a long time I've struggled with those who seem to love God and yet who believe a doctrine counter to Him or who are unaffected by His commands for their lives. 

 Their faith matters so much to them, their belief is genuine, and their love seems real. But how can both be true? Is this a matter of immaturity, of unconfessed sin, or of a false faith?

John 15 helped me to make sense of this in some ways. As Jesus calls Himself friend, I see so many who want Him as such, who relate to Jesus as someone familiar and loving and comforting, but who do not also see Him as Lord. Who want the affection of Father without the authority of one. Who want to walk in relationship but not in submission.

There's a difference between believing and abiding, and this passage helped me to see how faith can matter so deeply to someone and yet affect so little of their lives.

Recently, a sermon on 2 Corinthians 11 helped me to make sense of it in another way.

Verse 3 says, "But I am afraid that . . . your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ."

Paul calls for a sincere and pure devotion, and as my pastor explained, a lot of times people only have one. 

He walked us through the legalism that was common in the church culture of my youth. People who had right theology but an unaffected heart. He called them inoculated Christians, who have enough of the real thing to feel secure but who are not infected (or moved) when God moves in a room. 

But he also explains the other side--this sincerity I've seen more and more as the pendulum has swung. People who have love, who are passionate about Jesus, but who lack pure knowledge. Who worship a Jesus, but he's a Jesus who fits what they want him to be. 

Neither one can save.

And the point isn't to identify people's faith for that purpose alone but to remind me, as someone in a cultural context that often claims or looks "Christian," that I cannot take people's salvation for granted. That if someone's faith lacks sincerity or purity of theology, I should not stay silent, placated by their claim and care (to one extent or another) for the Christian faith. This isn't a call to judging the validity of someone's faith but a call to prayer, to evangelism, and to discipleship even when the world around you claims to be saved. We are all on mission no matter our cultural context.