That is a silly statement isn’t it? The vegans I know tend to be committed to the lifestyle. No one can honestly call themselves “vegan” and plan to eat steak every Thursday. In the same way, it makes no sense to say, “I am a Christian, except when I am a non-Christian on Thursdays.”
Let us consider a text from the Bible.
1Pet4.2, 3a, “so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do,” (ESV).
Christians must not give themselves permission to take a time-out from being Christians to go back to their old way of life. Christ’s suffering, and His mindset through it, make a template, an example, for His people to follow.
Our culture is largely non-Christian and tells us every day to do the very things for which Jesus died. Before we became Christians, we had ample opportunity to add to the burden He bore on the cross. No longer. For the rest of our lives, we must commit ourselves to living the truths of the Bible, every day of the week. We have some behaviors we must leave off, and we have others we take on. It is true we will never live a Christian life without failure, it is also true that we can’t honestly call ourselves Christian if we plan on eating steak…on Thursdays.
Photo by Kyle Mackie on Unsplash
