The Cost of Conviction: What Are We Willing to Sacrifice for Faith?
Hello friends, I found myself trapped in my office this week, and so I had very little opportunity to learn or read. Something that is always sad to me, but as always, just because I didn’t listen to something doesn’t mean I don’t have something to say, which may honestly be a personal problem for me. Maybe it’s not always good to have something to say.
So this week, I started a new book called “Shepards for Sale” by Megan Basham. A book that outlines how many of the most well-known evangelical churches and leaders have begun to crumble to the whims of the world. Many have begun to take a soft stance on the issues of this age. When I learned of this book, I was excited to check it out, as this has been a conviction of mine for a while now. Not only for the church at large but for myself personally, a few years ago I read another book called “Church of Cowards” by Matt Walsh and here too I find myself having to ask the question what am I will to give up for the sake of my convictions. This, in my view, is a question that we as Christians often fail to ask. I have often shared my enjoyment of Jordan Petersons' work, and I enjoy hearing how he articulates his thoughts and Ideas. So I want to discuss this idea I little bit today.
In this video, Jordan talks about what it means to truly believe in a thing. Jordan, in this video, discusses how making the statement that “you believe” is not good enough to get you into heaven, and this is a truth that I think we as Christians often forget. The Bible also talks about this and that even demons believe in God, so believing that God exists doesn’t save you, nor does believing that Jesus existed.
We are not necessarily saved by the belief, or else the demons might be saved. We are saved by the willful surrender of ourselves unto the will of God. We are saved by committing ourselves to living a life aimed toward God, this does not mean that we will be perfect, but it does mean that we can’t just claim a belief in God and hope that it will be our “fire insurance” just in case. It means that when we make the claim that we believe in God, we commit to following His instructions to the very best degree that we can. It means that we are willing to lay down our desires and our wants for the mission of God daily. It means that we are going to pursue a life that reflects God’s design and plan.
I have heard many Christians make the claim to believe and yet see no conviction for them to change. I have seen this same error in myself. When we make the claim that we believe in God and yet find that it doesn’t require anything new or different from us, we are likely not following the true Jesus of the Bible. The true Jesus of the Bible required change from all people; there was no one who wasn’t in need of some form of change. My aim here is not to tell anyone that they aren’t a real Christian, my aim is to ask the question how has following God changed me? What has it cost me? Because I truly don’t think anyone can truly follow God without paying a price of some sort. To truly follow the teaching of Jesus Christ means that there is a price we have to pay for that. These are the convictions that led me to evaluate my own life and ask the question, “What am I willing to give up?”
Jesus talks about how we are called to “deny ourselves daily,” and yet I find it is often easy to go through life and find that it doesn’t cost us anything. Here in America and in the Bible Belt, especially, we as Christians often find that there is little demanded of us by our culture. And we as Christians often look no different than the rest of the world, we drink and we dress just like the world. I have often thought about the fact that God called the children of Israel to be a “Holy people,” which means simply to be “set apart.” In asking this question, I have found myself forced to look in the mirror and ask the question, how have I sought to become “set apart?”
In the Old Testament, we see repeatedly that the children of Israel are called to abstain from many things. Things that, in many cases, likely didn’t make any sense to them, and yet God’s command didn’t change just because they didn’t get it. The command was for them to follow and do as instructed. Today, I think many of us as Christians fail to remember that we, too, are still called to be set apart. We are still called to be a Holy People. We are called to live lives that look different; we are called to live a life that causes the people of the world to pause and ask what is different about these people. Yet here in our comfortable America, we sit around and do everything much like the world: we talk just like them, we drink like them, we watch the same movies, and we dress just like them.
So, my conviction is to ask the question of how I have been called to be set apart. This question has prevented me from going to see certain movies, most recently the new Deadpool and Wolverine movie. Not that I believe that anyone who did go see it was somehow sinning, but I found that my conviction remains that I can’t support (with my money) a studio that has actively sought to groom and exploit children. These convictions have often resulted in me getting looks of bewilderment from others. These convictions are mine, and I have no desire to impose them on anyone but myself. But I do think that we, as Christians, should spend more time asking the question of what it means for us to be set apart.
We, as Christians, have gotten comfortable here in America, where it often costs us very little to be a Christian. And I do think we are seeing a real-time shift of this mentality. Cultural Christianity is becoming increasingly hard to maintain. We, as Christians, are increasingly being silenced. We are seeing increasing levels of mockery of Christianity, as was seen in the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony. Mockery leads to disdain; disdain leads to persecution. The world will hate you as a true Christian, and if it doesn’t hate you, then maybe it’s because you are no threat to it. We, as Christians, have become increasingly hard to distinguish from the rest of the world.
The question with which I find myself wrestling today is simply this: “What has my faith cost me?” and “What is it costing me today?” If it hasn’t cost me anything, then it is likely that it doesn’t truly mean that much to me. And if it hasn’t cost me anything, then I likely don’t value it very much. We invariably value most, those things which cost us the most. We most often see the worth of a thing based on the price someone is willing to pay for it. The question we must ask is, what price are we willing to pay to be called a Christian? Will we be a people set apart? Are we willing to pay the price of following Christ? Are we even willing to lose friends for Christ? Are we willing to have hard conversations for the sake of Christ? Or do we just stand idly because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings or because we want to keep the peace? Will we speak the truth in a world that increasingly hates the truth because it convicts them?
These are the thoughts and questions I find myself wrestling with as I see within myself the desire to be liked and popular. And these are the questions I leave you to ponder and ask yourself.
Would someone know you are a Christian if you didn’t tell them?
What has it cost you to follow Christ?
What are you willing to pay for the sake of Christ?
