Lukewarm Christianity Has Become So Normal That Biblical Christianity Looks Radical
Somewhere along the way, we have watered down Christianity so thoroughly that ordinary biblical discipleship now looks radical.
For many people, Christianity has been reduced to an hour on Sunday morning: sit in the pew, sing a few songs, listen to the sermon, and then return to ordinary life until the next week. Prayer is saved for those moments when things are going terribly wrong. Biblical wisdom gets reduced to inspirational sayings that sound more like fortune cookies than Scripture. Baptism becomes a spiritual “get out of jail free” card, Confirmation becomes graduation from church, and faith begins to follow an almost predictable pattern: baptize, confirm, marry, bury, repeat.
It can become almost utilitarian. Church is there when we need something from it, when family tradition requires it, or when we feel the social obligation to show up. Somewhere in all of that, however, we can lose sight of what Jesus actually means when He calls us to be His disciples.
Before going any further, though, I want to make something absolutely clear. This is not an argument that you need to work harder so that God will love you, nor is it a checklist for earning your way into heaven. Jesus Christ has already done everything necessary for your salvation. You do not pray enough to earn heaven, read enough Scripture to earn forgiveness, attend enough worship services to earn God's favor, or serve and sacrifice enough to make yourself worthy of Him.
Christ died for sinners and rose for sinners. He has washed us in Holy Baptism, spoken forgiveness into our ears through His Word, and placed His very body and blood into our mouths for the forgiveness of sins. Our salvation does not depend upon how tightly we can hold onto Jesus; it depends upon Jesus holding onto us.
But the Jesus who saves us also calls us to follow Him, and His description of discipleship is far deeper than occasionally attending church.
“Follow Me”
Jesus' invitation throughout the Gospels is remarkably simple: “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19). Those two words contain an entire way of life.
Jesus does not merely invite us to agree that He exists, acknowledge Him occasionally, or fit Him into our schedules when it is convenient. To follow someone means movement. It means learning from that person, listening to that person, and allowing that person to determine the direction in which you walk. In the Christian life, it means allowing Christ to shape what we value, how we treat others, how we understand ourselves, and where our lives are headed.
Jesus makes that calling even clearer when He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). That sounds radical to modern ears, but Jesus is simply describing Christianity.
Faith was never intended to occupy one small compartment of our lives. Jesus does not ask for Sunday morning while everything else belongs to us. He calls us entirely to Himself.
Abide in My Word
Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31). The important word there is abide. It means to remain, to stay, to make your home somewhere.
Biblical discipleship means dwelling in the Word of God. That certainly includes hearing Scripture in worship, but it also means reading Scripture, studying Scripture, learning the faith, teaching it to our children, discussing it in our homes, and returning to it when we are confused, angry, tempted, afraid, or grieving.
We live in a world that is constantly discipling us. Every advertisement, social-media feed, television program, political argument, cultural trend, and endless stream of online commentary is trying to teach us something about what matters, what is true, and what a good life looks like. If God's Word receives an hour of our attention each week while the world receives nearly every other waking hour, we should not be surprised when the world begins shaping our thinking more than Christ does.
That is why Jesus calls His disciples to abide in His Word. He knows how easily our hearts and minds are shaped by everything around us, and He continually calls us back to the truth.
Pray
The same is true of prayer. Jesus does not speak about prayer as an unusual activity reserved for especially spiritual people. In the Sermon on the Mount, He does not say, “If you pray,” but rather, “When you pray” (Matthew 6:5).
Prayer is certainly something we do in emergencies. God invites us to call upon Him in every trouble, and there are moments when all we can manage is, “Lord, have mercy.” But prayer was never meant to function only as Christianity's emergency button.
Imagine having a friend whom you contacted only when you needed something. Eventually, we would recognize that something was wrong with that relationship. Prayer is part of the life we share with our heavenly Father. It includes thanksgiving, confession, intercession, praise, lament, trust, and sometimes simply sitting before God with words we can barely form.
Our prayers do not always need to be elaborate. Sometimes they are nothing more than, “Thank You,” “Forgive me,” “Help me,” “I don't understand,” or “Your will be done.” A disciple learns to speak with God because God has first spoken to us.
Repent
Jesus begins His public ministry with the words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Repentance is not something Christians do once at the beginning of their faith. It becomes part of the rhythm of the Christian life.
This is also where we can misunderstand Baptism. Baptism is an incredible promise and gift of God. Scripture teaches that in Baptism we are joined to Christ's death and resurrection (Romans 6:3–5). But Baptism was never intended to become a spiritual certificate that we place in a drawer and point to whenever someone asks about our relationship with God.
Rather, we live in our Baptism. We return daily to God's promises through repentance and faith. We confess our sins honestly, hear again that Christ has forgiven them, and remember that the old Adam is to be drowned while the new man rises to live before God.
Christianity is not pretending that we no longer sin. It is becoming so confident in the mercy of Christ that we are no longer afraid to admit that we do.
Love One Another
Jesus tells His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you” (John 13:34). The love He describes is not merely sentimental affection. Jesus' own life tells us what that love looks like.
He washed feet. He touched lepers. He ate with sinners. He welcomed the forgotten. He forgave His enemies. Ultimately, He laid down His life for those He loved.
Christian love therefore becomes tangible. It means forgiving people who have hurt us, caring for people who cannot repay us, bearing one another's burdens, visiting the lonely, feeding the hungry, encouraging the discouraged, and speaking truth even when truth is difficult. It means sacrificing for our spouse, our children, our neighbor, and even our enemy.
Jesus says that the world should be able to recognize His disciples by the way they love one another (John 13:35). That is a much deeper calling than simply having our name on a church membership list.
Forgive
Closely connected to that love is Jesus' command to forgive. When Peter asks how many times he must forgive someone who sins against him and suggests seven times, Jesus responds, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22).
Christians are forgiven people who are learning to become forgiving people. That does not mean sin is unimportant, wounds are imaginary, or reconciliation is always immediately possible. Some wounds are deep, some relationships are complicated, and forgiveness can be painfully difficult.
Yet Christians live beneath the cross of Jesus. We know what it means to stand guilty before God and hear that our sins are forgiven for Christ's sake. Over time, and often with great difficulty, the mercy we have received begins to reshape the mercy we extend to others.
Seek First the Kingdom
Jesus also says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). That little word first forces us to examine our priorities.
Where does worship fit into our lives? Where does Scripture fit? Where does prayer fit? Where do our families, service to our neighbors, generosity, and Christian community fit? If all of these things are squeezed into whatever scraps of time remain after everything else has been scheduled, we should at least ask whether Christ's kingdom is truly being sought first.
Our calendars can become theological documents. So can our bank statements, our habits, and the things that receive most of our attention. They quietly reveal what we believe is valuable.
Jesus does not teach this because He wants to make our lives miserable or burden us with endless religious tasks. He teaches us because He knows what human life was created to be. We were made for communion with God, love for our neighbor, and a life ordered around things that are eternally good.
Make Disciples
Jesus also refuses to let Christianity stop with us. Before His ascension He tells His Church, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
The Christian faith is meant to be received and then handed on. Parents teach their children. Friends speak about Christ with friends. Mature Christians encourage younger believers. Christians invite others into worship and Christian community. We learn the faith not simply so that we possess more information, but so that we can confess that faith and pass it on to another generation.
This is one of the reasons Confirmation should never be treated as graduation from church. Confirmation is not the moment when a young Christian finally finishes with religion. It is much closer to saying, “This is the faith into which I was baptized. I believe it. I confess it. By God's grace, I intend to continue living in it.”
Confirmation is not the finish line of discipleship. In many ways, it is only the beginning.
This Is Not About Earning Heaven
At this point, however, the danger should be obvious. We can take everything Jesus commands and turn Christianity into another self-improvement program. Read more Scripture. Pray harder. Serve more people. Give more money. Try harder. Do better.
But Christianity is not ultimately about our ability to build ourselves into better disciples. It is about Christ.
The same Jesus who says, “Follow Me,” is the Jesus who carried the cross for you. The One who commands holiness is the One who gives His righteousness to sinners. The One who commands forgiveness is the One who first forgave you. The One who commands love is the One who loved you while you were still His enemy. And the same Jesus who tells us to abide in Him also says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
That changes the way we understand spiritual disciplines.
Christian disciplines are not ladders by which we climb toward God. God has already come down to us. He came down in the incarnation. He comes to us through His Word. He has joined us to Christ in Baptism, and He comes among His people in the Lord's Supper with forgiveness, life, and salvation.
So why pray? Why study Scripture? Why worship? Why fast, give, serve, confess our sins, and intentionally cultivate Christian friendships?
We do not practice these things in order to make God love us. We practice them because He already does.
These disciplines train our hearts and minds to dwell upon what is good, true, and beautiful. They pull our attention away from the endless noise of the world and continually direct us back toward Christ. Most importantly, many of them place us again and again where God Himself has promised to work: through His Word, through His Sacraments, through prayer, and through the fellowship of His people.
Our salvation is not secured by our strength in holding onto Jesus. Jesus holds onto us. Yet Scripture also warns repeatedly about unbelief, drifting away, hardening our hearts, and abandoning the faith. We know how easily distracted and wandering our hearts can become.
That is why discipleship matters.
We gather around the gifts of Christ because we know how easily we wander. We remain in His Word because we know how quickly the world reshapes our thinking. We pray because we need our Father's presence and mercy. We repent because sin continues to cling to us. We receive Christ's Supper because weak sinners continually need the forgiveness and strengthening He gives.
None of these things earn salvation. They continually draw us back to the Savior who has already won salvation for us.
Maybe Biblical Christianity Should Look Radical
Perhaps the problem is not that biblical Christianity has become too radical. Perhaps we have simply become accustomed to something far less than what Jesus describes.
In our culture, a Christian who worships faithfully can look radical. A family that regularly prays together can look radical. Someone who actually knows Scripture can look radical. A person who forgives an enemy, sacrifices money to care for another person, remains faithful to a spouse, takes chastity seriously, speaks openly about Jesus, or makes major life decisions based upon Christian conviction can look unusually devoted.
But none of those things are particularly unusual in Jesus' description of discipleship. They are simply Christianity lived out.
Jesus did not die and rise merely so that we could add “Christian” to our biography, keep a loose connection to a congregation, and call upon Him whenever life falls apart. He died and rose to make us His own. He has redeemed us, forgiven us, claimed us, and given us a new life in Him.
There is no better place to be.
Perhaps, then, the question we should be asking is not, “How little Christianity can I get away with?”
The better question is, “Jesus, You have given everything for me. Teach me what it means to follow You.”
