“Insecurity is an ugly thing, it makes you hate people you don’t even know.”
As Christians the greatest thing we can possess is security in our relationship with God. Far too often we find ourselves insecure in our faith and this causes us to reach for other ways to find security.
Usually this leads to us performing for approval. Have you ever been in a relationship with somebody and were unsure if the person was in love with you as much as you were in love with them? What usually happens? Some give up and sabotage, others push forward and try to make them fall in love with them.
With God, when we are unsure if God loves us or not or if God is pleased with us, we can become increasingly critical. We can start to judge our relationship with God on superficial things like looking a certain way, acting a certain way, or avoiding certain things.
None of these are bad in a vacuum, but why is this dangerous when it comes to security in Christ?
Because the more we feel the need to perform for God’s approval the more judgmental we become. Our relation with God becomes less and less about faith and love and more and more about rules and regulations, these become increasingly harsh over time as the person becomes more and more insecure in their relationship with Christ.
Because of this, the person begins to be critical and judgmental of every professing Christian around them. Instead of inviting people to join in the beauty of the gospel we start to isolate, saying things like, they are compromisers, they want to be like the world, or they don’t love God as much as me!
You start to see backbiting, you see judgmental people lashing out at others for not holding the line, for not being as holy as they should, and the truth is the root of the issue is that insecurity has wrecked their faith and they are just as lost as the people they are pointing fingers at.
But there’s a better way!
Roman’s 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Notice, it doesn’t say that once we started measuring up, that once we got our lives in order, that once we got rid of all of our bad decisions that Christ died for us. It says while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
This is how God demonstrated his love for us! Before we could offer ANYTHING, he offered us His Son.
1 John 4:9-10 “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
1 John 4:19-20 “We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
John is painting the picture of what it means to be secure in Christ. We know that God loves us, that is the reason for the gospel! The gospel isn’t a tool to get God to love us, it is good news because it gives us an opportunity for salvation, not on the basis of us, but on the basis of Him!
It’s why the way we treat our brothers and sisters is a direct indicator of whether we have this understanding or not.
That understanding drives our faith, because we are secure and because we know that God loves us, we walk in obedience to his Word, not out of obligation or fear or to earn God’s approval, but out of the overflow of gratitude that says like the Apostle Paul,
Ephesians 2:3-5 “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
This understanding changes how we think and how we interact with others. Because I know God loves me, and because I know the grace He has shown me, I can show that same love and grace to others!
There’s no room for criticism or judgmental attitudes because we all understand that it is by GRACE we are saved! It’s a gift! And because it’s a gift I want to share it with as many people as possible!
Find someone who is gracious and loving and you’ve found someone who is secure in their faith.
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