Worthless Faith
Titus 1.16, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached that if salt loses its saltiness it is good for nothing and is to be thrown out. This illustration referred to us, His Church. We have a defined mission and that is to influence our generation with the message of the Kingdom. If we fail in this then our faith is of no value, it is worthless.
In the post-modern world in which we live, absolute values are scorned. The Bible is received as true, but not relevant. True for its time, but for today’s generation it is to be reinterpreted and adapted to each person’s own situation and desire. We have been presented with a “Lord-less” salvation, cheap grace and easy believism. “Just repeat after me…just believe…and all will be ok.” We have made it so easy and in so doing the Church has become irrelevant and impotent. As Judas warned, we are in a battle for the faith, (Judas 3).
Worthless faith is when we say we know God, but your life does not reflect His Lordship. One of the most popular songs today is “Empire State of Mind”, by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. They are mouth pieces of the enemy’s deception when they sing: “Jesus can’t save you. Life starts when the church ends.” Even Katy Perry, (formerly Katy Hudson), a rising pop star, who claims to be a Christian, said in an interview with “Rolling Stone” magazine: “God is very much still a part of my life. But the way the details are told in the Bible—that’s very fuzzy for me. And I want to throw up when I saw that. But that’s the truth. . . . I still believe that Jesus is the son of God. But I also believe in extraterrestrials, and that there are people sent from God to be messengers, and all sorts of crazy stuff.” She went on to state her relativistic views on morality and much more.
If the power of the Gospel does not change us, then others will not change. We are to be like Jesus, not just to have Him in some special, hidden part of our life. Jesus is not around to just get us out of our messes, but to rule and reign in our hearts. We cannot just put on an appearance of godliness, but deny its power to transform us. Let not your faith become worthless.
Scriptures to reflect on: Jeremiah 2:8; 7.28; II Timothy 3.1-5, Titus 1.16; Matthew 5.13-16 and Judas.