“The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay.”

One of the scariest parts of Christianity few folks talk about is this:

2 people are seated in church, listening to the same message. But one is receiving exhortation while one is receiving damnation. The message that brings instruction to one, will stand in judgment against the other hearing and not obeying.

Many are sitting in church, taking in the word. But rather than grow in faith through this word, they grow in cynicism and apathy. They turn the grace they hear of into license to justify their sin. And no immediate judgment comes for this so they persist, believing they are in the right (Psalm 50:21)

“Familiarity breeds contempt” is becoming a reality for these folks. Their proximity to the church is making them lose reverence for God.

This has brought grave consequences before. For instance, many know the story of Uzzah, the fellow that was struck dead by God for touching the ark of the covenant to stabilize it. Fewer are aware that that ark was in Uzzah’s father’s house for one full year before that incident (2 Samuel 6:3). Uzzah wasn’t unaware of the protocol for handling the ark of the covenant, but his familiarity ended up in tragedy.

This is a scary phenomenon because it can go undetected as there is little on the surface to differentiate the 2 people taking in the word with different outcomes. It is even worse for church workers, fellowship leaders, and pastors as those around them put them on a pedestal and will not be quick to correct them when they are going off track.

What's the solution, one might ask? It's 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless you fail the test”.

We’ve heard about the wheat and the tares. That weeds will grow along good seeds till God decides to harvest. Ask yourself: am I wheat, or am I weed? Am I part of the good seed, being watered by the word and flourishing in faith and good works, or am I behaving like an implant, benefitting from the goodness in the vineyard but not generating fruit reflective of that goodness?