By Joseph Han
The last 10 months have no doubt been the most experiential time of my youth. In this short span, I found myself working for two companies, moving houses three times, visiting four different churches, and living a neo-working-adult life in London – and the novelty has felt oddly gratifying. In fact, the opportunity to go to London for a year felt like a wild coin toss that God in His favour so graciously granted me.
Despite the multitude of change, the time also provided me many instances to reflect on my Christian faith. I’m thankful to have settled into a Bible-centred church in London with plenty of opportunities to centre my life and time around Jesus. I remember attending a talk at Canary Wharf during my lunchbreak where the speaker spoke about pursuing God with greater diligence than our careers. This particularly struck me as it is irrefutably true that we cannot profess Jesus as our God but pursue other worldly things more diligently than Him.
It struck me that I was in London because I sought this “discomfort” to pursue growth in my secular endeavours, but I had not approached the growth of my faith in a similar manner. I was that passive “Second Generation Christian” who never really took ownership of my faith and was content with the status quo of my Christian walk – concerned but not committed; lacking urgency to ascertain the state of my faith. I was far too comfortable being a ‘minimal’ Christian.
As wider society becomes more intellectual (both Christians and non-Christians), I found myself easily intrigued, curious of biblical epistemology, ontology, and sometimes swayed by dodgy doctrines, hermeneutics, and exegesis. If I am not comfortable being unfamiliar with my subject matter at work or school, how can I be comfortable to approach my faith lackadaisically? This was a question that really challenged my view on how I approached my walk with God.
I’ve written a non-exhaustive summary below which have been highly encouraging to me to be more diligent in my Christian walk and why becoming an “active” Christian is so important as a representation of the faith already given to us by the Spirit – by knowing God better through Scripture.
We must be competent Christians
● It is dangerous to be infantile in faith as we risk being tossed around by different waves of teachings (Ephesians 4:14) and we are warned to not be carried away by strange doctrines and vain deceit (Hebrews 13:9, Colossians 2:8) but to come to the knowledge of the Son of God (Ephesians 4:13)
● We should continue in the things that we have learned (Scripture), which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith (2 Timothy 3:14-15)
● We should know how to control our body in sanctification and honour (1 Thessalonians 4:4)
Therefore,
(a) We must actively seek our salvation
● We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12)
● We are to diligently make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10) and add to our faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge (2 Peter 1:5)
● God has assured us that those who love and seek Him diligently will find Him
(b) We must start now
● Jesus will come like a thief in the night and blessed are those who keep their garments on (Revelations 16:15)
● Our salvation is nearer than when we believe therefore, so we should cast off the works of darkness (Romans 13:11-12)
We must be ready for God and for any questions
● Blessed is the person who listens to God and watches daily at His gates (Proverbs 8:34)
● Be ready always to give an answer to every man that ask you a reason of the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15)
I have found this to be very practical advice from the Bible, which though written long ago, remains so profoundly applicable in the modern context. Being a Christian is not easy and I am not the most faithful person around, nor someone who knows the Word from front to back. However, it is critical to recognise any slouching into a “Christian Comfort Zone” and quickly tackle it to prevent passiveness in our walk with God.