Articles
7 Signs Christians Might Love Comfort More than Jesus pt3
5) You View Christian Living as a List of “Don’ts.”
Comfort-driven Christians have a laundry list of “don’ts.” They believe in righteousness
by subtraction. So, you won’t catch them drinking or cursing...at least in public.
But righteousness by subtraction is one-sided righteousness. It’s half truth.
The whole truth is your heart should grieve as much when you fail to live out the “dos” as
it does when you fail to refrain from the “don’ts.” But comfortable Christians don’t like the
“dos.” It involves them getting out of their comfort zone. It involves them taking the message of
the gospel to their neighbor. It involves them feeding the poor and correcting injustices.
Are you minimizing righteousness to a list of “don’ts”? Does your heart break for those
who don’t know Jesus? Do you grieve when you pass over an opportunity to plead the cause of
the poor and oppressed? Is your heart desensitized to the orphans and widows?
If not, maybe it’s time to ask whether you follow comfort or Jesus.
6) You Keep God On a Leash.
“You stay right there, God. And don’t do anything crazy.” This is the implicit mantra of
comfortable Christians. God is confined to a box. Answers rarely fall in the gray area. God rarely
operates beyond human understanding. Miracles. Healing. Demons. None of these filter through
the box well.
So, they are out.
Comfortable Christians often use phrases like “God doesn’t work that way” and “God
can’t do that” because God isn’t all-powerful, He is not a God worth serving. So, we must make
a decision. Let go of the leash or follow a false god.
Personal thought: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than
your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). God, indeed, works in
wonderful and mysterious ways. As we attribute great power to the Lord, let us be sure that we
are remaining consistent with His Word.
You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. ~Mark Batterson
