How To Avoid Playing Church
James 1:26-27
Preached by Pastor Tony Miano
Pico Canyon Community Church
January 28, 2001
Introduction: This morning we’re going to be studying James 1:26-27. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at how we can avoid fooling ourselves about our spiritual condition. In this passage we’re going to learn some ways to avoid playing church. We’re going to consider a plan for our church so that we won’t be a congregation that simply plays church. At the same time, we’ll consider some indicators to watch for in our own lives that may be indicative of playing church.
James 1:26-27 says, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
In the two verses we’re going to look at this morning, James points out three things we should do to avoid playing church. We need to be people who have control of our tongues. We need to be people who willingly care for the less fortunate. And we need to be people who clean up our acts whenever the need arises.
I had an opportunity to spend some time talking to a friend this week. My friend, who has been a believer for almost thirteen years, was having a crisis of faith. Often times a crisis of faith comes in the face of some sort of personal or family tragedy. That wasn’t the case with my friend. My friend’s crisis of faith came as a result of the realization that she was fooling herself about her walk with the Lord.
Now, I would like to say that it was the sermons I preached over the last couple of weeks that brought about my friend’s realization about her spiritual condition, but she didn’t hear either one of my sermons. Only the Holy Spirit can receive the credit for my friend’s crisis of faith. Thankfully, by God’s grace, by the time we were done talking, my friend had reassurance about her faith.
I can understand why my friend felt so much anxiety about her spiritual condition, about her relationship with Jesus. She had spent the better part of her life serving regularly and significantly in her church. But when she was a young adult, she realized that the things she did in the church did not make her a Christian. She realized that her service wasn’t a guarantee that she really knew the Savior. By God’s grace, she came to a genuine faith in Christ.
Yet even though she possessed this newfound faith, she began a walk, a very long walk that bore very little fruit. Oh, she went to church. She participated in Bible studies. She even served in various areas of responsibility in the church after coming to a genuine faith in Christ. But there was a depth and breadth of fellowship with the Lord that was missing in her life.
My friend let this go on for so long, she struggled with this for so many years, that it brought her to the point that she was beginning to doubt that she was even saved. The good news is that the moment my friend realized she had been playing church for all of those years was scary and fantastic at the same time. I am not one that believes in coincidences. I don’t believe it was just by chance that my friend would have this crisis of faith the same week I am preparing a sermon on how to avoid playing church. I’ll have to make sure she gets a CD of this message.
But before we get into the text, it’s critical that each and every one of us understand that what James teaches us in these verses are both meaningless and worthless unless we first have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Without that critical, mandatory, unambiguous factor being real in our lives, then there is no way to avoid playing church.
As my friend expressed her fear that she wasn’t a true believer, I asked her a couple of questions. I asked her if she made her profession of faith because someone close to her pressured her into doing it, or because it just sounded like a good idea at the time. I asked her if she had been baptized for similar reasons. She said, “No. I asked the Lord into my heart because I wanted to know Him and follow Him all of my life.”
By the irresistible leading of the Holy Spirit, my friend understood and accepted the words of Jesus when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). She understood that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. Without that, without Jesus Christ providing and pointing the way, everything else is just playing church.
Now, having established the first and foremost condition for avoiding a lack of genuineness in our faith, let’s look at some things we, as believers, should do both individually and corporately as a body, to avoid playing church.
The Kind of Person James is Talking About
What James says in verse 26 and 27 is well placed, coming on the heels of James’ teaching about hearers of the Word who delude themselves. Just as James made a contrast between hearers and doers, in verses 19-25, in our verses for today he makes the contrast between people who practice their religion out of habit or tradition and people who practice their religion in such a way that it has an internal, lasting affect on their lives and the lives of the people around them.
Kurt Richardson, in his commentary on the Book of James, wrote, “One of the chief characteristics of self-deception in the Christian life is that believers can make an empty show of religious devotion . . . One can seem to be religious, that is, rightly related to God, and yet in the most basic way be failing to be so” (Richardson, p. 99).
Sometimes we, as evangelical Christians, can be very quick to dismiss the word “religion” as always being a negative, manmade thing. It’s not—and that’s one of the points James is making in these verses. As believers, we should not be so quick to throw out the baby with the bath water. What we need to do is discern between false and superficial religion from that religion which is based solely on an authentic, genuine relationship with Jesus.
The adjective “religious” comes from the Greek word threskos and is found nowhere else in the New Testament. We see the noun form of the word at the end of verse 26. Although the word “religious” can refer to internal convictions, more often than not, in other Greek literature, it is used to describe the outward visible practices of one’s religion. It’s a word that can be used in both a positive and a negative sense. Again, there is good and bad religion.
James begins verse 26 with what’s known as a first class conditional statement—“If anyone thinks himself to be religious.” The wording here is such that James is assuming that there are people within the body of Christ who are like this. The fact that James uses the word “anyone” tells us that he is not pointing out a particular person, congregation, or group within a particular congregation. We know that he is speaking to Christians. But beyond that, we can only surmise that there are people who seem religious in every congregation.
James talks about the person thinking himself to be religious. The Greek word, rightly translated as “thinks” in verse 26, can also be translated as “seems.” I think the idea James is trying to get across here is that not only does the type of person he is referring to consider himself to be religious, but this type of person is probably perceived to be religious by people in both the Christian and secular communities.
What we’re going to see James do in the remainder of verse 26 is make the argument that the person who thinks themselves to be religious, yet behaves in the way he is about to describe, is fooling himself about his spiritual condition and just playing church.
Control Your Tongue
The next phrase in verse 26 gives us a good indication that the person whom he is talking about has a religion that is not all it’s cracked up to be. James tells us that if a person seems to be religious to those around him, and he subjectively considers himself to be a religious person, it may all be a façade if he doesn’t have control of his tongue.
Who we really are can often be determined by what we say. Our speech will do more to make or break our reputations than just about any other character trait. More types of sin can likely be attributed to the tongue than any other part of the body.
Having control of our tongues is not only critical to our own spiritual health, but it is also critical to the health of our church. The fact that the apostle Paul, in his instruction to Timothy and Titus regarding the selection of church leaders, made a point of included qualities such as temperate, not quarrelsome, and not double-tongued as being important traits of the men who were to lead the new churches around the world, shows how important the issue is.
In referring to the need for controlling the tongue, James uses the very descriptive word “bridle.” Do we have any horse people here? Well, when we think of a bridle, we more than likely think of the apparatus used to control a horse, which is comprised of a headstall, bit, and reins. Since James uses a similar illustration in chapter three, this is likely the kind of bridle he is referring to here.
Unless you’re Robert Redford in “The Horse Whisperer” and can talk horses into doing what you want them to do, probably the best way to control a horse is by using a bridle. Charmin Ortega, the secretary up at Lake Hills Community Church, in Castaic, is a horse fancier and rides often. She was kind enough to put together some information for me regarding the horse bridle.
She told me “horses mouths and tongues are very sensitive. The actual ‘bit’ is nothing more than a metal bar with a roller in the center that the horse rolls with its tongue. The roller has really nothing to do with commanding the horse, it is really just used to keep him busy and from getting bored or fighting the bit.”
“The reins are connected to the bit on each side of the horse’s mouth and are used to gently send a ‘message’ to your horse as to the direction you wish to go. If you gently pull your reins to the left, he will respond by turning in that direction; same for the right. To stop your horse altogether, you gently pull back on the reins while giving him a verbal command. If you want your horse to move straight backwards without turning his body around, you would continue the pressure on the reins and give him a verbal command such as ‘back.’”
Although James clearly wrote about the bridling done between a horse and rider, there is another kind of bridling he could have had in mind. Again, James was very familiar with the Old Testament and the customs of the ancient world.
In Isaiah 37, we have an account of one of God’s many miracles. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had invaded Judah. The Assyrian Kingdom at this time covered an area that would now be recognized as Israel, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and most of Turkey.
Hezekiah, Judah’s king went to the temple and prayed that Judah would be spared total decimation by Sennacherib’s army so that the whole world would know that the Holy One of Israel is the only true God. The Lord answered Hezekiah’s prayer through the prophet Isaiah and ultimately struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers without the army of Judah firing an arrow or spear.
In Isaiah’s prophesy of Assyria’s impending doom, the prophet said, “Because of your raging against Me and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came” (Isaiah 37:29).
It wasn’t a coincidence that the Lord would have Isaiah illustrate His point in such a graphic manner. You see, “it was customary to fix a muzzle of leather on [obstinate or unmanageable] slaves. Prisoners of war were similarly treated. One [ancient] Assyrian sculpture represents prisoners with a ring in the lower lip, which is attached to a thin cord held by the king” (Unger, p. 185). The prophecy foretold of a time when Assyria would suffer the same indignation that their slaves and prisoners of war were made to endure.
Whether we picture an ancient prisoner of war being led about by the nose or a horse submissively responding to the gentle leading of its rider, the point is that James is telling his readers they must have complete control of their tongues or they are playing church. They are utterly deceiving their own hearts about their spiritual condition.
The fact that James doesn’t give us specific areas in which we should control our tongue, we can conclude that he is telling us that we should control our tongues in every form of speech. Areas in which we should be controlling out speech include sarcasm, anger, slander, bitterness, and boasting. There are many others.
But since we don’t have the time to look at every form of speech, I want us to focus on what I think is a form of speech that is pertinent to the life and health of our church. This particular form of speech is one of the most devastating and insidious forms of speech in any environment, especially the church—gossip.
Proverbs 20:19 says, “He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with a gossip.” And in Proverbs 13:3 we read, “The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; the one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.”
People gossip for many reasons. Probably the most common and, at the same time, least often admitted to, is the need to feel important. Information is a very powerful thing. The possession of information, especially information that is unknown to others, can be an intoxicating thing. The only way for anyone to know how powerful or important you are because of the information you possess is to tell someone about it.
Sometimes an insatiable need to gossip can disguise itself as something more positive—like prayer. We’ve talked about this during our Wednesday night Shepherd group. We’re currently studying prayer and one night I asked the group if they ever heard or ever said the following: “I’m only telling you this so you can pray.” When a person shares a personal prayer request with you, you are automatically placed in a position of influence with a significant amount of responsibility.
The influence is expressed in the fact that someone trusted you enough to share with you and intimate detail about his or her life. The responsibility is expressed in the fact that you now hold this intimate information in your mind and in your heart. You are now responsible for not only interceding for this person before our Lord and Savior, but also for protecting the information from public view.
Whether or not you are a person who is simply playing church will be determined, in part, by what you do with the information. Are you going to follow the Scriptures? Are you going to be a person who reveals secrets, or are you going to guard your mouth and preserve the dignity of the person who shared with you?
One thing we can do to avoid using prayer as a guise for revealing secrets, is this. In fact, Lance and I have talked about this on a number of occasions. If someone shares a prayer request or any piece of personal information with you, the first thing you should ask the person is, “Is what you are telling me for my ears only?” Find out exactly what the person wants you to do with the information they are giving you and respect their wishes.
If the person shares with you a prayer request that is for your ears only, don’t put your hand on the person’s shoulder and tell them you will pray for them. Take the person by the shoulder, lead them to a quiet area or corner of the room, sit down with them, and pray right then and there.
A couple of things are accomplished by doing this. For one, the person is immediately encouraged by your care and concern. Also, the insatiable need all of us have, to one extent or another, to share the knowledge we possess, will likely be deflated. Instead of letting the information stew in our hearts and minds, giving it the potential to grow into gossip, going directly before the Lord with that information should help to relieve the need to tell anyone else.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in the moment, we can be so taken aback by some of the information we receive, that we find ourselves running off at the mouth before we realize we’re doing it. Anytime we receive information from or about another person, we should take as much time as we need to think about the consequences for repeating the information we’ve received.
Alan Redpath, in the book A Passion for Preaching, gives this formula for avoiding gossip. “I once formed a mutual encouragement fellowship at a time of stress in one of my pastorates. The members subscribed to a simple formula applied before speaking of any person or subject that was perhaps controversial. T—Is it true? H—Is it helpful? I—Is it inspiring? N—Is it necessary? K—Is it kind?”
“If what I am about to say does not pass those tests, I will keep my mouth shut! And it worked” (Redpath, p. unknown)!
But what if you’re the one on the receiving end of what appears to be gossip? What should you do? Well, there are several simple questions you can ask yourself to determine whether or not the conversation you are involved in is healthy or gossip. Ask yourself, “Does the third party know we are having this conversation? Why is this person sharing this information about someone else with me? Is the third party being built up or torn down? Who can this conversation hurt? Is this conversation tempting me to gossip?”
It’s an incredibly uncomfortable feeling to be in the middle of a gossip conversation. It can be so uncomfortable that we find ourselves smiling nervously and not saying anything, as if our silence means we are not participating in the gossip. Yet not saying anything, not stopping the conversation before damage is done, is no less detrimental to your spiritual health and the health of the church than if you were the one spreading the gossip.
If you find yourself heading into a gossip conversation, lovingly ask the other person if they have taken up the issue with the person they are talking about. If they haven’t, then politely tell them that you can’t be involved in the conversation. It might be helpful to keep Matthew 18:15 in mind if you ever find yourself in this kind of situation. “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private (emphasis mine); if he listens to you, you have won your brother.”
The verse doesn’t say, “go and tell the world about your brother’s sin.” It doesn’t say, “go and tell only your closest friends and ask them to pray.” No. If you have an issue with a person, anything that could cause you to speak negatively about that person, then you are obligated to go to that person first and work it out.
I know we’ve spent a lot of time on this, but I think it’s vitally important that we are all very clear about how dangerous gossip can be to friendships and the fellowship of the church. It’s so important, as some of you will find out in our upcoming membership class, that part of our membership covenant is a commitment not to engage in gossip.
It’s also important to note that the leadership is committed to never hearing an accusation against someone in the church unless the principles in Matthew 18 are closely followed. Leaders of the church take on the role of a shepherd. That means the leaders of the church have as a first priority the obligation to guard the flock from anything harmful, whether it comes from inside the flock or out.
Before moving on to describe what pure and authentic religion is, James adds one more powerful caveat to emphasize his point about controlling the tongue. If a man cannot control his speech then his “religion is worthless.”
The word “worthless” comes from the Greek word mataios. James doesn’t use the word in the sense that he is speaking about a believer whose faith is shallow or immature. He is making the assertion that a person who cannot control their tongue is a person whose faith is an exercise in futility. It is utterly meaningless.
If we want to avoid fooling ourselves about our religion, if we want to avoid playing church, then we must come to the realization that our words, probably more than anything else, reveal our character. Jesus speaks some very powerful words to the Pharisees regarding this issue. Remember, the Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day who were fooling themselves about their spiritual condition. Listen to what the Lord said.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:33-37).
Who Determines the Purity of Our Religion?
Having very clearly defined what pure religion is not, James moves on to lay out a very simple model for authentic church life in verse 27. James sets up the answer to the question, “How can I avoid playing church,” when he says, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this.”
The words “pure” and “undefiled” are synonymous terms. Purity, as James speaks of it here, carries with it the idea of moral cleanliness. Paul, several times in the New Testament, uses the same word when he speaks of having a clear conscience (cf. I Tim. 1:5; 3:9; II Tim. 1:3). James uses the word “undefiled” in the sense that authentic, genuine religion is free from any form of contamination.
What we should catch from this first phrase in verse 27 is who makes the determination whether or not a person’s religion is morally clean and uncontaminated. It is our God and Father. Man does not determine the purity of his spiritual condition. God does.
This flies in the face of virtually every other religious system on the planet. If we were to take a look at the other major religions around the world, we would find that each religious system contains within its beliefs and doctrines the idea that the church determines the purity of its followers’ spiritual condition. One common denominator among the other religions is the stipulation that a right relationship with God begins with belonging to their particular religion.
“Wait a minute.” You might think. “Doesn’t Christianity do the same thing? Doesn’t Christianity require belonging to Christianity for one’s religion to be valid?” Yes. It’s true that in order to have a right relationship with God, you have to be a Christian. You have to not only acknowledge, but also submit to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
But in authentic Christianity, you will not hear anyone say that you have to be a member of a particular church if you are going to hope for salvation. True Christianity requires a submission to the Lord and the truths of His Word. When that pure religion becomes defiled is when man adds the stipulation that you must submit to the authority of man to be saved.
Yes, God’s Word is clear that, as believers, we are to submit to the authority of the church, which is the leadership of the body of Christ; and to the government God has placed over us. But that submission to men has absolutely nothing to do with a person’s salvation. A person is saved by faith alone in Christ alone. Man is not saved by faith in Christ and the approval of man. Going to a cathedral, mosque, temple, ward, or the clubhouse called Pico Canyon will not save you.
If we are to consider our faith to be genuine, then we must agree with the words of the apostle Paul when he wrote, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through (emphasis mine) Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (emphasis mine). And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Rom. 5:10-11).
Care For The Less Fortunate
One indicator of a genuine, personal faith in Christ, and a mark of a congregation that is not just playing church, is the extent to which the less fortunate are cared for. James expressed this idea when he wrote, “to visit orphans and widows in their distress.”
The NASB translates the Greek word as “visit.” Although this is a literal translation of the word, it could be misunderstood to mean casually dropping by to see someone. That’s not spirit in which James is using the word. The NIV comes closer to James’ intent. The NIV translates the word as “to look after.” In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this word often appears in reference “to the coming of God to deliver his people from crisis or else visiting the sick” (Richardson, p. 101).
At the end of the Book of Genesis, for example, we find Joseph on his death reassuring his brothers that God would look after them. In Genesis 50:24 we read, “Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised . . .”
We can find another example of this in the Book of Ruth. “Then she arose with her daughter-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food” (Ruth 1:6). In this verse we can see that the Lord did not simply drop by and ask how the people were dong. He came to look after them, to care for them, by giving them food.
I came across a story about Robert Lavelle as I prepared for this morning. “Robert Lavelle’s neighborhood is one of the most isolated, forgotten, and helpless communities in America—the inner city. ‘People tell me, “You’re crazy, man,” says Lavelle, “but I have to do it.” He is referring to his savings and loan and real estate operations in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, an area where wrecking ball, drug dealer, and welfare check are a way of life. Many of Lavelle’s bank loans go to people who would be unable to obtain credit elsewhere. Though federal regulators and others have urged him to move to a ‘better’ location, Lavelle refuses.”
“Dwelling House Savings and Loan goes further than financial loans, however, for Lavelle takes a personal interest in his clients. If they fall behind in payments, he visits their homes to help them figure out budgets and challenges them to set an example of financial responsibility for their children. This appeal to self-respect and accountability is the key to helping needy people, he says. It is the only way to break the cycle of their poverty. Handouts enslave people. Teaching them how to manage and extend their resources helps set them free . . .”
“Lavelle, who lives within walking distance of his office, is quick to tell his clients about spiritual freedom as well, but his faith is most evident by what he does, not by what he says. ‘For me,’ he says, ‘being a Christian is a matter of obedience—and that means helping people in need as the Holy Spirit leads” (Colson, Kingdoms of Conflict, p. 258-259).
James specifies two classes of people who needed extra care —orphans and widows. In the ancient world, these two groups represented the poorest of the poorer and the people who were most likely to be cast aside by society. James is telling his readers that they were to imitate the model that God Himself has set for them. David describes God this way. “A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation” (Psalm 68:5).
But James writes this sentence in such a way that his readers were not to limit their benevolence to only widows and orphans. You see, had James wanted his readers to only think of the people he was mentioning, he would have written, “to visit the orphans and the widows.” The point James is making is that if we should be caring for people with the greatest of needs, we should also be caring for the needs of others who are distressed on every level, at every opportunity.
Douglas Moo has written an excellent commentary on the Book of James. He wrote this. “One test of pure religion, therefore, is the degree to which we extend aid to the ‘helpless’ in our world—whether they be widows or orphans, immigrants trying to adjust to a new life, impoverished third-world dwellers, the handicapped, or the homeless” (Moo, p. 97).
The Greek word for “distress” means the stress that comes with the intense pressure of life, whether it is as a result of illness or circumstances. To truly meet the needs of the less fortunate, which can be anyone of us at any time, we need to meet them while they’re in distress.
Sometimes it is difficult to do that. Sometimes we tend to shy away from the less fortunate as if their misfortune may rub off on us. Sometimes we distance ourselves from those in need because we don’t want to be forced to look at our own pressing needs, or we consider our own needs to important to put those less fortunate first. Regardless of whatever hang-ups we may have about serving those in need, if our hearts don’t break for them to the point that we extend to them more than just a smile and a kind word, we are just playing church.
Now granted, all of us won’t be called to go into impoverished areas, in distant lands, to serve the less fortunate. But we can participate in these ministries in tangible ways through prayerful, logistical, and financial support. That is why we are going to support Kristin Thompson in every way possible to send her to teach in a South African orphanage this summer. And I want to call each of you to begin praying for her as she prepares.
Even though we live in a community where the average home sells for over $300,000 and the average household income is about $100,000, there is still ample opportunity for us to serve those in need right here, right now. If we are going to be a church that is authentic and genuine in its ministry to the community, then we must minister to the entire community.
Habitat for Humanity is going to be building homes in the Val Verde area this year. If the opportunity presents itself, we are going to help build those homes. I don’t think they’ll let me operate any power tools, but I swing a mean hammer. And I will expect you to be working alongside of me. Children’s Hunger Fund has supported the planting of our church in some significant ways. It’s time we supported them. As the Lord provides the leadership, we will be a church that partners with CHF to feed the poor in our community and around the world. We will not play church at Pico Canyon.
Clean Up Our Acts
Finally, James exhorts his readers, and each of us, “to keep [ourselves] unstained by the world.” We need to be mindful to clean up our acts whenever the need arises. Throughout the rest of his letter, James will give us practical examples of how we can do this in our own lives. In verse 27, James is making a very specific call to personal purity. The NIV translates the word “unstained” as “unpolluted.” In effect, what James is calling for is a balance between being in the world in order to serve, and avoiding becoming one with the world and the pollution it contains.
“To keep” is in the present tense. This means James is calling his readers to regular, continuous action. We are constantly bombarded with images from television, radio, books, even the religious section of the local paper depending on who’s writing that day, with ideas and principles that are contrary to the Word of God. James is calling his readers to “apply [the Word of God to their lives] without moral or spiritual compromise” (MacArthur, p. 91).
James’ wording tells us that there can be no exceptions to this rule. Regardless of the sin issue in your life, or the causes of that sin, or the explanations you can give yourself for remaining in that sin, if you want to avoid playing church you must remain unstained by the world. That is not to say that you must be perfect. You will here me say that often. But if you claim to have an authentic Christian faith, yet you have no desire to remain pure according to God’s standards, then whom are you ultimately fooling? You’re certainly not fooling God.
As we close this first chapter of James’ letter, we’re brought full circle back to the mirror. We’re brought back to the idea of taking a good, long look into the mirror and seeing what type of people we actually are. There will be times when we look in that mirror and find the stains of a polluted world on our faces—stains we put there ourselves. You may have seen that image in the mirror some time ago. If you look today, you may see it.
The practical and relevant question is this. “What will you do when you see the stains of the world as you gaze into the mirror? Will you walk away and forget about it? Will you keep it in mind only long enough to rationalize it away? Or will you abide in the Word of God to the point that you are brought to repentance and obedience to what the Word says? I can’t answer that one for you. Only the person in the mirror can.
One of our core values here at Pico Canyon is to raise up a body of believers that yearns to be holy. We want to be a church where each and every person seeks to cultivate personal holiness in their lives through consistent personal worship, Bible study, and prayer, which will equip each of us to make godly decisions every day.
This yearning to be holy is not what makes us Christians. We should yearn to be holy because we are Christians. This yearning to be holy, to be more like Jesus in every aspect of our lives, whether it be in our speech, our care for others, or balancing the need to remain unstained by a world we are all called to reach for Christ, will help us to avoid playing church and give us confidence about our spiritual condition because of who we are in Christ.
