What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? James 2:14 (NIV)
One of the dangers of being brought up in a Christian home is that we get just enough Christianity to inoculate us against the real thing. That means for many of us there is a real danger of settling for a kind of faith that James says will not save us.
An inoculation works by injecting a small amount of a disease or virus into your bloodstream, and that small sample will make you highly resistant to the real thing.
That’s great when it comes to protection from diseases, but inoculation against the true faith by sampling a tiny bit of it is one of Satan’s most powerful strategies in keeping people who are familiar with church from a living union with Jesus Christ: “I was baptized as an infant. I was brought up in the faith. I’ve been going to church since before I can remember.”
The danger is that you hear the pastor talk about faith, and you say to yourself, “Well, I have that.” Then he talks about Christ and you say, “Oh yes, I believe all that.” Then he tells you about the cross and you say, “Yes, yes, I already know that.”
And soon you settle into a pattern of assuming that you have what is being described and that there is nothing more for you to receive. You have become highly resistant—the truth floats right over you. The power of truth is lost on you by inoculation.
Have you settled into a pattern of assuming you have all that the Word of God is describing, and that there is nothing more for you to receive?
