"I know your works: you're neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." - Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)
We live in a pretty neutral world. Seemingly, it feels like everyone is completely for some things and completely against others, but pretty much we are all told to sit in our little corners, eat what is fed to us, and be accepting of everyone and their beliefs. We are told that there are gray areas, and that there's nothing wrong with living in them. However, this is not what God wants us to be. As Christians, we are either completely in, or completely out. There is no in-between heaven and hell. There is no in-between saved and not saved. Either you are, or you aren't.
I want to be a journalist. I love writing, and I love informing people of what is going on in the world. One day, as I was expressing this desire for journalism to an old friend of mine, she told me that I should be a neutral journalist. Telling news in a way that would be accepting of all things, and all ideas. Never for or against anything. Now let me ask you something, how on earth am I going to tell people the truth about the world around them, if I'm so caught up in keeping everything neutral? Truth is unbiased, yes. But it is never neutral. Whether we believe it or not, we live in a black and white world, and some things are just plain wrong. Not everyone likes it, not everyone accepts it, but this world is full of black and white things. How boring would I be if I just wrote about neutral things all the time? Revelation 3:15-16 says, "I know your works: you're neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot! (16) So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." We are never to become neutral about our beliefs, or our faith.
Secondly, we cannot be neutral Christians. I heard an analogy once of a man who had to decide which side of a fence he wanted to be on, God's side, or the Devil's side. Thinking and considering this for a little bit, he came to a conclusion. Thinking he could cheat the situation, he decided to sit on the fence, with one leg on one side, and one leg on the other. "There!" he exclaimed, "Now I can have both ways!" (he also must have been REALLY uncomfortable. Hopefully he had on padded pants) Well, he sat there for a while, and the devil came up to him and asked what he was doing. "I've solved my problem!" the man exclaimed. "I can now be on both sides of the fence, and I never have to choose, as I am in both!" The devil looked at him for a bit, shook his head, and said, "You know I own the fence, right?" Sometimes in our Christianity, we can become fence sitters. It's so easy to put on a nice dress on Sunday morning, put on a bit of makeup, pick up our Bibles, go to worship, then go home and live however we want. That is sitting on the fence. And I know that we hear those words a lot, but how simple is it to do that? We can get so wrapped in the talk of "I'm a Christian." and we can quote verses, teach Bible class, answer questions, and know everything that there is to know about the Gospel, and we can still be lost. Are you?
Today I would like to encourage you to look at your life, and ask yourself, "Am I neutral?" "Am I a Christian, or a gray blob of neutrality?" These are questions that we can sometimes forget to ask ourselves. But no matter who you are, or how long you have been a Christian, it's important that we take a step back, analyze our lives, and honestly inquire ourselves about these things. Otherwise, years can go by with this habit, and we don't even realize it. It devastates me when so many people will even say this, but they don't realize that this is them. They are neutral. They are putting on a show on Sundays, and leaving having gained nothing. Having given nothing. Today I encourage you to take a step back, and ask yourself, "Am I for Christ, or against Him?" Because there is no middle.
