Come As You Are

Each week, I have the privileged of meeting with three or four young women individually, to discuss their relationships, spiritual lives, and future goals.   Unfortunately, after several months of these one-on-one interviews, I've noticed a discouraging pattern...

Probably 9 out of 10 will tell me they "believe in God and believe the Bible is true," and there's "nothing" they'd really like to change about their relationship with the Creator.  But, when I ask whether their premarital sex affects this faith, they make a speech like this:

"Oh, I've heard it's a sin. But nobody is perfect; I always ask God to forgive me afterward." 

I'll remind them: "When I asked if there's anything you'd like to change, you said 'no.'"

"I wasn't thinking about that," they'll say. "...The important thing is God loves me the way I am."

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It upsets me just a little more every time I have this conversation, but I don't blame the girls solely.

Yes, they are using grace as a License to Sin, which Paul warned against (Romans 6:1,2) But I think the Church is responsible for the lax attitude toward breaking the Law. For years, we have over-emphasized "acceptance" and downplayed the importance of being holy.

Hasn't everybody in America heard that God is quick to forgive and expresses infinite mercy? Can't almost all of us quote John 3:16; God loved the world so much that whoever believes has permission to do whatever they want?   (Or something like that?)   :)

Of course everyone knows God likes and dislikes certain things. But we'd rather focus on how nice He is when we mess up. We like sharing the good news, "come as you are," as if our streets are lined with shame-filled sinners who've never heard it and keep flogging their own backs in penitence.

I'd love to concentrate on the happy message:  "Hey, poor pitiful souls, stop beating yourself up! God loves you already!" It feels good to reassure someone they don't have to feel guilty anymore.

But I've met very few who feel guilty.

In fact, when asked directly, our first thought tends to be, "I have nothing to change."

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This week, I created a list of Scriptures which may ring less familiar than John 3:16.

For example, Revelation 3:16 says half-commitment to God makes Him want to vomit. He'd rather we disown him completely than use His name and keep living in sin.

Also, James 2:17 says, "Faith, when not accompanied by action, is dead." There must be fruit--some kind of evidence we've met Jesus...or our so-called faith is useless. And brace yourself for verse 19: "You believe there is one God? Good! Even the demons believe that!"

In the future, I'd like to share some of these truths with my Bible-believing clients because history shows they aren't hearing it elsewhere. For every spineless, rose-colored church organization that teaches nothing but "God loves you," there must be someone brave enough to share the other half of the truth: He loves you too much to let you wreck yourself with sin.

Yes, come as you are. But you cannot stay that way.