Someone I love dearly, though rarely see eye-to-eye with, once proudly told me that she was and is a “non-practicing Christian.” Unfortunately, I’m not very quick on my feet and didn’t feel it prudent to get in a verbal jousting match with her at the time. But it’s a thought which I often ponder and I’d like to now address.
But what exactly is a non-practicing Christian? Based on how I understood the phrase at the time and what I know of Sarah’s* life, I understand a non-practicing Christian to be a person who believes in God, presumably the Judeo-Christian God, but doesn’t live one’s life according to all the perceived practices or actions that “fundamentalist Christians” seem so concerned with. Further defining the non-practicing Christian by what I know of Sarah’s life,** a non-practicing Christian appears to be a person who even attends church on all the major holidays, but is rarely, if ever, concerned with Jesus Christ or Christianity for the rest of the year. In short, I define the non-practicing Christian as someone for whom Christianity has been reduced to a set of clever, heart-warming philosophy that no longer has much relevance in the day-to-day activities of modern man; someone who claims to believe in Christianity but doesn’t care to be bothered by Christian praxis.
I think it’s easiest to approach this argument by way of analogy. Is it possible for a person to be a non-practicing cyclist? For instance, if I visit a local bicycle shop twice a year, would that make me a cyclist? No. What if I visit that shop monthly or even weekly? No. Rationally, I must, at least, put my rear on a bike and pedal around to be considered a cyclist. So, we can reasonably exclude those who merely visit a bike shop, watch cycling on television, or mentally assent the merits of cycling from those we consider cyclists. But what if I rode a bike one or twice a year, would I then be able to consider myself a cyclist? No, it wouldn’t matter if I upped the ante to riding monthly or weekly, a few days on a bike does not make me a cyclist. My friend Josh is a cyclist. He lives and breathes cycling. During the spring, summer, and fall, he’s on his bike at least six days a week. Not for a few minutes, but for hours. During the winter, his daily schedule is defined by staying in shape to ride that bike come spring. When it’s too cold or the roads are too icy to ride, he’s running or snowshoeing or at the gym, continually keeping his body in perfect condition so he’ll be ready to ride and race in the spring. There’s no such thing as a non-practicing cyclist. A cyclist is defined not by what he believes, but what he does. Josh’s life, energy, and passion are consumed largely by and on that bicycle.
Is my analogy too simplistic? Not at all. Jesus said twice in John 14 that those who love Him would keep His commandments. By Christ’s own definition, his followers would be defined by action.
And what commandments? Well, in Mark 12, someone asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was and He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
I could pull together a whole slew of passages in the Bible to reinforce my case, but I don’t really need to. Jesus said the greatest commandment was focused on who we love and how we love Him. There is no such thing as a non-practicing Christian, just as there is no such thing as a non-practicing cyclist, because to Jesus, loving Him was intrinsically connected with action. Simple belief or mental assent to the philosophies of Jesus isn’t enough. At best, that can only be loving the Lord with all my mind. But what about the heart? What about the soul? What about loving the Lord with all your strength? Strength, in particular, connotes action, because clearly Jesus wasn’t talking about loving Him while I’m at the gym.
The non-practicing Christian is a myth. It doesn’t exist. And I don’t really mind if a person doesn’t want to practice Christianity. I just prefer they not delude themselves into thinking they can consider themselves a Christian without allowing it to be their daily focus, passion, and primary motivation for everything they do. Those that love Him will keep His commandments. Period. That’s wasn’t negotiable to Jesus and it shouldn’t be to us.
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* Obviously, I’ve changed her name. I have not been given her permission to publicize her beliefs. So I’m trying to respect that.
** Thank you, Facebook. Where else would I be able to learn about a person’s every whim ad nauseam?
