In the book “Pilgrim’s Progress” there are three main characters, Christian, Faithful and Hopeful, and as their names imply, they are born-again believers, servants of the Living God. They are on a journey, sometimes alone, at other times together, to the Celestial City, the kingdom of God, and along their way they meet many individuals, but only those of two sorts, those who desire profitable conversations, and those who do not.
These profitable conversations are of a contemplative nature, they extol and lift up the name of Jesus Christ, they seek to learn more about the Most High for the sole purpose of being able to glorify Him in a greater manner, and they are led by the Holy Spirit to correct conclusions as to the manner in which a man must order every area of his life to be pleasing to the Lord.
The other sort that they meet are those that do not desire these conversations, and so thereby relieving themselves of them, they place themselves upon the throne of their own lives, and eventually become contentious towards any words and statements that would remove them as masters of their destiny and put God in that place. They are unprofitable to those individuals, but still in a manner profitable to Christian and his companions, for they show them what they should not be. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 14:12)
Many who claim to know Jesus Christ as Lord spend the greatest part of their lives in these unprofitable conversations, the things of the world, whether they affect them personally or not, they wake each morning, leave the confines of their home, crawl into the rut they call life, and then return home in the evening with nothing but the self-satisfaction of a job well done simply for the sake of the job itself, there has been no profit to their day save for the renumeration that the world has offered to them. The conversations they enjoin in are of the world, with those who still live in this world, and in the spirit of friendliness they continue in this rut endlessly.
“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” (Prov. 18:24) Yet we are told that “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4)
Here is one of the greatest downfalls of the church, not brought on as a whole, but individually, by those who have determined to seek unprofitable conversations, those who would profess Christ with their lips only, (Matt. 15:8) and then only occasionally. They brought the world into their lives, and then took it to church with them.
It is a rare day indeed when I meet a fellow brother or sister in Christ who not only can, but has the desire to stand and speak of the glory of God for hours on end, who can find joy in Him no matter the circumstances they find themselves in, who can speak with authority and determination of the power of Christ in a man’s life, and who by the strength of the Holy Spirit has left that rut, and sought only the profitable things in this life. Most who call themselves by the name of the Lord are content to speak of that day’s troubles and woes, at best of their desire to be with Christ because of those troubles and not because of Him.
“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb. 13:5) You will not find that from those who live in the world still, and unfortunately that is many who not only claim Christ as Lord, but who may actually be saved, their lives, for the most part, are focused on self, on the daily grind, on the repetitive nature of their day-to-day life, and there is little profit in either their actions or their words. Either He is precious to you, and you have a burning desire in your heart to speak of the Lord God Almighty, or you do not. The answer to that statement can be found in your past, and you must be willing to look at it honestly, for it is by those works that you will be judged. (Romans 2:16)
