Immunization against the Gospel
A few weeks ago I walked into our son’s office. It was a Saturday night and he was preparing for his Sunday school lesson that he was to teach the next morning. I asked him what class he taught and he replied, “I only want to teach young people, I am sick and tired of teaching adults.” I immediately said, “Jeff is it because the adults have been immunized?” “Exactly,” was his response.
The word immunize is a medical term referring to taking small, weakened doses of an infectious organism so that the body can build up an immunity against the real thing when it is exposed to it.
Now, immunization is a good thing when confronting infectious diseases but, becoming immune to the only hope for eternal life is a bad thing.
How does one become immune to the gospel? The same way one becomes immune to measles, by being exposed to a weak, anemic, and powerless message, but for the Christian it is week after week.
Jesus spoke to this issue in Matt. Chapter 13 when He referred to something that Isaiah said in chapter 6. “Though seeing they do not see, though hearing, they do not hear or understand. You will be ever hearing but never be understanding: you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become callused: they hardly hear with their ears, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
Timothy warns us in II Timothy chapter 3 that in the last days church people will be “Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
He is a sobering thought. After describing church people in verses one through five Timothy says this, “Have nothing to do with them.”
“Hold it,” you might say, “I thought that church people were safe people to be around.”
Paul, while referring to the nominal Christians, says that these people are, “Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.”
I think that is what my son was saying about not wanting to teach adults anymore. They are always learning but never seem to apply what they learned to their lives.
Paul also addresses this issue in his letter to the Hebrews in chapter five when he says, “You are so slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food.
Some pretty sobering thoughts concerning the state of the Church that we all love and weep over.
The word immunize is a medical term referring to taking small, weakened doses of an infectious organism so that the body can build up an immunity against the real thing when it is exposed to it.
Now, immunization is a good thing when confronting infectious diseases but, becoming immune to the only hope for eternal life is a bad thing.
How does one become immune to the gospel? The same way one becomes immune to measles, by being exposed to a weak, anemic, and powerless message, but for the Christian it is week after week.
Jesus spoke to this issue in Matt. Chapter 13 when He referred to something that Isaiah said in chapter 6. “Though seeing they do not see, though hearing, they do not hear or understand. You will be ever hearing but never be understanding: you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become callused: they hardly hear with their ears, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
Timothy warns us in II Timothy chapter 3 that in the last days church people will be “Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
He is a sobering thought. After describing church people in verses one through five Timothy says this, “Have nothing to do with them.”
“Hold it,” you might say, “I thought that church people were safe people to be around.”
Paul, while referring to the nominal Christians, says that these people are, “Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.”
I think that is what my son was saying about not wanting to teach adults anymore. They are always learning but never seem to apply what they learned to their lives.
Paul also addresses this issue in his letter to the Hebrews in chapter five when he says, “You are so slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food.
Some pretty sobering thoughts concerning the state of the Church that we all love and weep over.
posted by Jim Burton at 8:32 AM
1 Comments:
So Good! I have always thought about and even worried over the concept of immunization to the Gospel. Will I, by raising my children in a Christian home, potentially immunize them against the very thing I am trying to infect them with? But your statement about being exposed to a "weak, anemic, and powerless" Gospel makes total sense. That is the very Christianity we want to avoid! Conversely, if it is genuine, powerful, and potent, then they will have a much greater possibility of becoming irristibly "infected" with world-changing Christianity!
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