Passivity
by Dave Roberts
Passivity is a dangerous thing because it
means that one who is a passive individual
will be acted upon rather than to
act. At best they might react in
response, but being active enough to
even attempt to change their surroundings
or habits is far less than someone
who is called “an activist.” Most
activists are almost too active, even for
a workaholic like me but that’s often
because they are zealots about their
cause. But passivity, especially in the life
of a Christian, is worse because it is the
very person whom Jesus says He abhors.
The word that He uses for it in
Revelation 3:16 is “lukewarm.” In that
passage, He says that He would rather
we be hot or cold, (read, for Him or
against Him because at least there’s
some sign of life!), but not lukewarm
because, if we are, He will spew us out
of His mouth.
Well, I think I finally discovered a root
cause of the seeming indifference in our
North American churches! It’s no
secret that I’ve long been disappointed
with the state of what is supposed to be
the Church, not just in this country but
in the western world in general. I see
mega-churches and smaller ones as well
often doing headcounts as though a
bigger number gives them greater validity
and listing a variety of programs that
are available to folks. But why, when
there are enough people filling the pews
of presumably evangelical churches in
southern California alone that, if they
banded together, couldn’t overturn the
something as unBiblical as, say, abortion?
Where have the Christians been
during elections over the past forty
years since the spiritual revolution took
place with the Catholic Renewal, the
Jesus People Movement, the
Charismatic Movement or even the
Word/Faith Movement? While I may
not agree with some aspects of each of
the above, millions of people were
impacted by those revivals alone since
the late 1960s and yet unrighteousness
prevailed both politically and spiritually,
inside and outside the Church.
Or has it become something where by
getting people to think that they’re
saved because they said a prayer once or
got baptized as infants or otherwise we
can count them among God’s people? I
don’t think so. In what Pastor Steve
Meltzer refers to as a consumer-oriented
gospel, we have allowed the consumerism
of the world to influence the
thinking of the Church to where people
are attending any number of churches
of any denomination or tradition and
yet passively sit week-after-week and
leave unchanged. The only action they
take is to get themselves there and back
home again but the once they’ve
checked in, their minds, will and emotions
have checked out and are at the
whim and even mercy of whoever is on
the platform and whatever is on the big
screen. Think about it: The majority of
professing Christians today are passive,
not active, because if they were, the fabric
of our communities and nation
would be different. These, whom Jesus
says are supposed to be the salt of the
earth, are ones who probably never had
a salty savor to begin with or lost it on
the way. And, like the lukewarm, above,
Jesus says they are cast out.
It isn’t just a consumeristic view of life
that can cause this passivity. It can be
an indifference in general to anything
of eternal value because those values
were never emphasized. For example,
the value of the human soul. Without
Jesus, a person will go to Hell! God’s
Word is clear on this. You can take the
Sacraments, be involved in programs at
your church, attend Bible studies and
cell groups or sit in the same pew faithfully
for decades and yet, because of
your passivity, be led and influenced
toward whatever makes you feel good
about yourself because a saccharine
gospel is not Jesus’ Gospel at all.
Our deliverance from a passive faith to
one that is active is not measured by our
activity. It is measured by a personal,
active relationship and intimacy with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Few understand
what I mean when I say that because no
one has ever told them that a relationship
with God is what gives us the drive
to serve and to be active. We have confused
our activity with spirituality when
the truly mature in Christ, because of
their intimacy with Him, are motivated
through that unction of knowing Him
first. It is all predicated on that. For
example, I John 4:19 says, “we love
because He FIRST loved us!”
There is a likely shift coming that is
going to have a winnowing effect on
those who really want Jesus as opposed
to those want to be passively led in a
faith that is not the Faith. In John 6:66,
it records that the bread-and-circus
entitlement crowd didn’t want to follow
Jesus any longer once He laid out the
terms and conditions for following
Him. Most left. They were the passive
ones who would be glad to get the free
bread and fish that were being passed
out but still abandoned the Lord when
He told them the cost, not of the food,
but of continuing to follow Him. Is it
going to have to come to that in the
United States for us to see the great
falling away the Bible talks about for the
End Times, a time when the love of
many will grow cold? Because, if God is
Love as the Bible says, then those who
know and live in a state of that Love in
Him will not see their genuine Love
grow cold. That Love will not allow you
to be passive. It energizes you to be
active without being an activist zealot.
Those burn out anyway after a while as
they cannot keep the fanaticism going
much past 30. No, the genuinely active
Christian is the one who is first and
foremost connected to the Lord Jesus
Christ as His Source. What flows from
that will never be passive.
© Copyright 2011 by Dave Roberts