Lukewarm and Loving It – Part Four

Those who are lukewarm, as we have already seen, have undeveloped faith and uncommitted hearts. They will also have undeveloped character. Character is an inside job. And, so often we focus on the outward lifestyle and al the requirements added when we became believers – Bible reading. prayer, worship… all of which are good. But they are only tools God uses to adjust and change our character. We treat them as rules to follow while God is hoping that these tools, if handled correctly, will work on the inside – changing our character.

However, those who are not passionate about following Jesus will have character issues that need to be dealt with and will avoid making the needed changes so that they can become more and more like Jesus.

Jesus said, “If you right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). Lukewarm believers have rewritten this verse to read, “If you right eye causes you to stumble, try to downplay it. It us far better to have two eyes than to be uncomfortable.”

One author wrote: “There are two kinds of cars. Concept cars that are wild cars some engineer dreamed up. Maybe they are made of fibreglass with wild tail pipes or painted flames, or maybe they have a hot tub in them. They are designed for just one purpose – to get people to ooh and ahh and drool over them. But you can’t buy one, because the company has no intention of making any more. It’s a one of a kind. Unique. They are a blast to look at, but there is no way anyone is actually making that car-boat-plane-expresso maker for your garage any time soon.

Then there are the prototype cars. You have never seen a car like the prototype car either, but there is a difference; the prototype is intended to be the first of many thousands that are modelled on that one car.”

Often we look at Jesus as a concept car. One of a kind. We see Jesus and know that no one else will ever be like Him. But the apostle Paul says nope, Jesus was not a concept car. Jesus was a prototype, the firstborn, the model for thousands and perhaps millions that will come after Him.

Jesus was meant to be the firstborn son among many brothers and sisters. In other words, God’s goal is for you and me to become like Jesus.

The apostle Paul confirms this: “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29). Now, what he means is this: as remarkable , unselfish, kingdom-centered, and incredible as Jesus Christ Himself was, that is what God intends for all of us to become.

Paul also wrote, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). This verse indicated that God is working behind the scenes, twenty-four hours a day, to bring about this kind of change in your life if you let Him. Lukewarm people don’t give Him permission to even start let alone bring the work to completion.

This promise should be a great encouragement to those of us who think that spiritual growth and maturity is unattainable. No one is more committed to helping you grow as a Christian than God, and He’s working night and day behind the scenes to transform you. If you let Him. If you are passionate about Him and want to be like Him.

A lukewarm believer is someone who has not allowed God to change their character and move them into maturity as a believer. They simply were born again and nothing else has changed since they first met Jesus. They are lukewarm and not real followers of Jesus. As a result they have an undeveloped character.