Carnal Christianity - Daily Devotional September 22nd 2009

Daily Bible Reading - 1 Chronicles 5, Ezekiel 18, Luke 15

Carnal Christianity

I know the title sounds like an oxymoron but Carnal Christianity is becoming very prevalent in the church today. What is Carnal Christianity? It is someone who is attempting to live a christian life with all of their focus on themselves. It is all about their dream, and where they fit in and what they are going through and where they can serve. Ah yes SERVE, there is a key word that is missing actually, because the carnal christian does not understand that the life of a true believer is all about servanthood.

In Romans 8:6 it says, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." As a believer our mind should be set on spiritual principles and truths not on fleshly or selfish things. Our mind should be set on the eternal plan of God but it seems like Christianity has become all about the "I" rather than about the people Jesus Christ died for on the cross. When this happens we are giving into Carnal Christianity. This is seen in the parable that Jesus tells in Luke 15. Most of us know this parable as the "Prodigal Son". This is absolutely a beautiful picture of Christ's love for people and how when someone turns and comes back to Him that He will receive them with open arms. There is however a dark side to this parable as well. That dark side unfortunately is a picture of the church. The brother in this parable has just returned to the father and the father wants to celebrate the fact that he has come back. The brother (church), "...heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in." Luke 15:25-28.

In this parable, rather than running to celebrate, the brother was so carnally minded that he refuses to go in the house with everyone else. When the father hears of it he tries to talk to the son but the son replies, "Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found." Luke 15:29-32. The response of the father is so key to understanding this point of Carnal Christianity. The son was so consumed with himself and where he fit into the whole picture that he missed out on the fact that he had everything he needed the whole time. The father said to his son that he had access to everything! But the point is that his focus was not on the main thing, which is people coming back to the Father.

We cannot allow our Christianity to become about us because when it does it becomes very carnal and we loose site of the fact that we are to reach the world for Jesus Christ. Look at what it says again in Romans 8:6. It says to be carnally minded = death and to be spiritually minded = life & peace. Wow! You get one thing for being carnally minded (not something you want) and two things for being spiritually minded. If I am not experiencing the abundant life that Christ has for me or the peace in my life that He has promised me, maybe I need to look at my Christianity. Is the focus on me? Or is the focus on serving people and getting them to Christ?

Tomorrows Bible Reading - 1 Chronicles 6, Ezekiel 19, Luke 16

Dream Big
Ben