Are You a Christian, and a Practicing Atheist?

Our adult Sunday School class is spending the summer going through Sinclair Ferguson’s book The Christian Life.  The book is “a doctrinal introduction”–in other words, it seeks to lay out in layman’s terms the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith with a view to life application.  In the introduction, J. I. Packer likens the Christian life to a three-legged stool, each leg representing an important aspect of the Christian life: doctrine, practice, and experience.  When all three are in balance, the stool is stable; if one is missing or lacking, the stool falls over.

I believe it is true to say that in the modern church, “doctrine” is often the neglected leg of the stool.  However, I want us to consider briefly for a moment one of the other legs: practice.  What does it mean to be a practicing Christian?  I believe for many it means doing “good things”–giving food to the hungry, visiting the sick, etc.  But don’t non-Christians do these things?  My challenge to us all is this question: what is it about the way I practice my life that makes it distinctly Christian?  It seems to me that, while we go to church, understand our doctrine, and even have profound spiritual experiences, when it comes down to day-to-day life, we live as if God isn’t there; we live like atheists.

Consider these Scriptures:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ… (Philippians 1:27).

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 3:3-7).

For we are His workmanship, creating in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

I believe the message of these, and other passages, is that we are to live our lives in the knowledge that our life is not our own, but it is the gift of God.  As such, we should conduct ourselves in a way that honors Him, always seeking His glory first, even if it costs us.  We should also recognize that our ability to do anything worthy of the name “Christian” is due to the fact that God has prepared those things for us to do, and He is the one that enables us to do them.  We cannot feel any sense of self-righteous pride over our good works.  So, Christian practice should be characterized by humility, excellence, and ultimately the desire that God is exalted.

Christian practice flows from a life that is firmly planted in Christ.  We cannot, therefore, claim to be living the Christian life if our lives do not acknowledge that Source of life.  So, let us not be practicing atheists!  Let us make sure our practice is rooted in Christ, honoring to Christ, and gives glory to Christ.