James has a little something to say about being double minded. A double minded person wants their will and God's will done at the same time or you might say a person who wants all the benefits of God and all the benefits the world. James 1:8 states that "a double minded man is unstable in all his ways." Did you catch that...."in all his ways." Followers of Christ are to extend God's rule to everything. His Lordship should be present in the smallest details of our lives. In fact the person who is double minded is a doubter, as James states in verses 1:6, 7. In the original Greek the words "double-minded," mean "two-souled." What happens when a crisis comes into the life of a double minded person, as you might expect they fall apart because their faith was never real to begin with, because their heart never belonged to God. If you serve people in ministry like I do or know of people who are double minded, you have seen what happens when a trial comes, their lack of trust in God leads them to receive nothing from God.
So here is my point, it is destructive for those who call themselves Christians but divide their lives into secular and church (sacred). This is referred to as syncretism. This is a person who wants to have the best of the Christian life and the best the world has to offer, but never truly identifies with Christ as a follower. In my ministry I share the gospel everyday and some times multiple times a day. I do this with gospel tracts, verbal conversations and most importantly my actions. As I sow seeds of the gospel my prayer is that men and women will be drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit and be genuinely converted by Him. Conversion precedes discipleship, so the purpose of the church is to be daily sharing the gospel and leading men and women to become disciples of Jesus Christ. But in my daily rounds in ministry I interact with a variety of people in the Charlotte region, an area that is consider to be the Bible belt, but rarely see mature disciples of Christ. The reason these "Christians" are not maturing, is there is no sanctification going on, because there is no relationship with Christ in their life.
The bottom line is that there are way too many "Christians" who have divided their lives into secular and spiritual. Their spiritual lives only occur on Sunday and Wednesday nights. But what is destroying the Christian witness, especially in America, is Christians living in the world and just like the world.
I am in the process of surveying all of my employees who do not attend church. My only question is for them to tell me the reason they don't attend church. So far, the overwhelming response has been the hypocritical lives of Christians. Christians are waging war against the Great Commission by doing this, the mission of the church.
Henry Blackaby, wrote in his book, Experiencing God, that "a love relationship with God is more important than any other single factor in our lives...Everything in our Christian lives, everything about knowing God and experiencing Him, everything about knowing His will, depends on the quality of our love relationship to God."
Don't let a double life destroy your Christian witness. Your life is not about you nor does it belong to you...if you truly follow Christ.
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