The Mixed Multitude Among Us

I was pleased to hear this, but I followed up on my initial question with what seemed logical to me then, and which still seems logical, “Where do you go to church?” His reply startled me, though I suppose I’ve become used to the response I received that day. “Oh, I haven’t gone to church since August 11th, 1968. I’ve just been too busy for that stuff. And besides, there are too many hypocrites in the church.”

This was a man who wanted the benefits of being associated with the Faith. He saw his foray into the Faith as a transaction that purchased an eternal fire insurance policy. It only cost him a little time on a Sunday, made no demands of him throughout the remainder of his days, and left him free to conduct his life as he desired. If he needed anything from the church, it would always be there so that he could use it whenever he wished. He saw the church as a place to be “hatched, matched and dispatched.” The church would recognise the birth of his children, serve as a place for him to be married, and be available to ensure that he could have a wonderful send-off when he died. In his estimate, the church was available to be used according to his personal desires rather than being a place where he could grow strong in the Faith, a place where he could strengthen others, comfort others, and encourage others.

The man I’ve just mentioned was not an anomaly, not an aberration; tragically, such individuals are more common among the professed followers of the Master than we care to admit. Even more common are individuals who have insinuated themselves into positions of leadership and trust among the churches, though they reveal no evidence of a transformed life. Clearly, this has been a problem since earliest days of the Faith. Jude, a brother of our Lord, wrote in the little missive that bears his name, “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” [JUDE 3-4].

Jude had planned on writing this brief letter to extol the Faith of Christ the Lord. However, the presence of influential pretenders compelled him to warn of the danger presented by these charlatans. He identifies these destructive termites as ungodly people, people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality, people who deny the lordship of Christ. Though they present themselves as followers of the Christ, their lives deny that they have ever known Him. They see the faithful as people whom they may manipulate for their own ends.

As was true with Jude, the Apostle to the Jews also wrote of these same individuals and the destructive impact their presence would have among the people of God when he wrote, “False prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” [2 PETER 2:1-3].