Jump Start # 1402

Ephesians 2:12 “Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

  Our passage today describes the state and condition of the Gentiles before the Gospel was preached to them. It is a dark scene. The words are eerie, “separate, excluded, strangers, no hope and without God.”

They did not know God and they did not know what they were missing.

Those same words and expressions define most of the world today. Yet, they do not realize it. You’d never know it by the way that they live. They appear to be happy. Their lives are full of activities. They are busy. They seem to be doing well. They are not living in fear or dread. They make plans, have goals, deal with life, but they are living as if God does not exist. Most are what the experts would call “practical atheists.” Technically, they believe in God, but in reality they live a life that ignores him. They don’t pray. They don’t worship. They don’t open the Bible. They live by the rule of goodness and as long as they are fairly decent, they are convinced that they will go to Heaven.

A life without God is what is becoming more and more the norm in our times. What happens on Sunday seems to have little practical value to the rest of the week. They seem to get by pretty well without God. This is hard for righteous people to understand. Those that always are thinking about God, that pray without ceasing, that are never far from the word of God, would expect others to be living in dread and their lives falling apart. You’d think that there would be such a vast difference that it would be apparent to all, but that’s not what is going on.

Back in Psalms the righteous nearly slipped and fell when he saw the wicked. They ate well. They excelled. They even died peacefully in their sleep. The wicked were not living in misery. They were not suffering. They were not begging for food and eating out of trash cans. No, living without God seemed to be working out pretty well for them. That thought prevails today. Successful people, good people, busy people, happy people, all without God. Even today, that thought causes some righteous to feel a injustice. Here, the righteous are trying but they often struggle. The wicked do not think about God and yet they seem to do well. Those that like to flaunt things will bring up this difference. The righteous struggle and those that live without God excel.

It’s hard for me to imagine living without God. My life is so saturated with God that it’s not just one thing, but it is everything. It’s hard to imagine eating without thanking God; going weeks or a lifetime not worshipping God and singing praises to His name; not being motivated by His word to forgive others; not finding joy in the life of Christ; not even thinking about God. And worse, not feeling bad about not doing those things. If I go a short while without thinking about God it bothers me. Practical atheists can go months, even years without thinking about God and it doesn’t bother them. And if the discussion ever came up, which it rarely does, they would say that they are getting by pretty good just the way they are. They don’t feel guilty for living as if there is no God. They don’t feel compelled to find a church by next Sunday to worship with. No, things are ok with them. They’ve gotten along this far without God and there is no need to start now.

And what we are seeing today in so many lives is an absence of a need for God. Why do I need God everyday, they’d think? I’m getting along just fine. Happy. Successful. Going places. Nice home. New cars. Friends. Well adjusted. Good job. What more would I need, that person thinks. They are not opposed to God, but just don’t see the need to become so extreme as they would view most of our readers. Just don’t need that. God’s there, they believe, if they need Him. But most times, there is not a need. And if the discussion gets to what happens when you die, the practical atheists would firmly believe that Heaven is theirs because of the good life that they have lived. They have done more good than bad and they have lived decent lives and are not bad. It’s the bad that don’t make it.

This is the wiring and the psyche of many folks today. The more your life is a mess, the more God needs to be present in your life. But, like many of them, if things are going well, just keep doing what you are doing, and for most, it means living without God.

This is the frustration with many parents toward their grown children. Growing up they went to church all the time. But since the kids moved out and moved on, they have found a comfortable life without God. Sundays are the day to sleep in, catch up on house work and have family time. They are happy, doing well and living without God. The parents don’t understand. They talk to these grown kids about church and God, but they don’t see the need. They might drop in once in a while at Easter or Christmas time, but other than that, they are too busy, too contented, and doing too well to need God like their parents do.

The practical atheist misses it in two areas.

First, his need for God is based on selfish reasons. If things are going well, he doesn’t see the need for God. The Lord is viewed as a spare tire or the emergency room of the hospital. Folks don’t use those things unless they need them. You always know that they are there, most don’t look at their spare tire every day. We get in our cars and drive about town and do just fine. It’s only when there is a problem that we turn to the spare tire, or to the Lord. They fail to see that they have been blessed by the Lord. Their wonderful lives is not a result of ignoring God or living without Him. It is because of Him that they have these things. But there is more to our relationship with the Lord than just a need basis. God adds things to our lives that we cannot find anywhere else. More than that, God wants a relationship of love, trust and joy that is built around Him. All relationships, whether friendships, marriages, families, involve time, communication, love and trust. The closer we are to God, the more that we know God, the more that our relationship grows. Satan’s conversation with God in the book of Job was directed toward the selfish side of things. Satan believed that man only followed God because of the blessings that man received. Take away the blessings and man would have no need for God. The Lord believed that man would be devoted to Him because He was the Lord. God wasn’t buying a relationship through the blessings. God is and that alone ought to be a reason for all of us to worship Him, invite Him and include Him in our lives every day. We do not pray without ceasing because of the goodies that we hope will fall from Heaven. We pray because we believe. We pray because He is there. We pray because we love and trust Him.

Second, there is a crashing end to practical atheism. The fog that they live in that goodness is enough for Heaven will be lifted on the other side. They will see, often too late, that goodness is not good enough. They live with a false hope and a delusion that goodness outweighs any bad done in their life. Their hope is not in Christ, but themselves. The Psalmist, whose foot nearly slipped when he saw the wicked doing so well, went into the sanctuary of the Lord and saw their end. Their end wasn’t death. Their end was standing before God without any hope. The life that ignored God comes crashing down. Without Christ, there is no Heaven. It is His blood that cleanses us not the goodness that we do.

It’s difficult talking to people who believe that they are ok. It’s hard to get happy people to see that they need God in their lives every day. The task before us is to let our lights shine and live with such a hope that people will see it and ask us about that.

A life with God is filled with hope. A life without God has no hope.

Roger