The majority of people are not going to talk with you about anything of any value, at least in terms of eternal value, they will talk all day about the weather, the local news and gossip, what is going on in the world at the moment, they will even discuss their own personal lives, at least up to a point where it might cause embarrassment or put them in an unfavorable light in your eyes, but beyond that, nothing that they say has any eternal value.
I would ask you to think on that for a moment, that word “nothing,” an entire lifetime, birth to death, of billions upon billions of people who have not said one single word of value that will last for all eternity. All of their actions, all their ideas and thoughts, completely and totally forgotten, as if they never were. (Eccl. 9:5) These are they that the Word of God calls fools, and they are the majority of the population of mankind.
There is another branch, so to speak here though, those who claim to serve Jesus Christ as Lord but never speak of Him, even, if perhaps rarely, within the church setting. You will occasionally hear a “Praise God,” or something similar to that come from their lips, they may spill out a Scripture verse once in a while, but for the most part, they are not profitable to the kingdom, for they do not live in the light of His love except in their own minds, or perhaps in their private lives, but in public, it would be difficult to say that they are truly saved individuals.
Here is the discerning point that the one who has been crucified with Christ must find, for it is God that looks on the heart, (1 Sam. 16:7) and God alone can judge the heart, but the lack of obedience in the public eye, so to speak, of these individuals is indeed in question. This is the generalized excuse given by most today, that we cannot see their hearts, but how are we to speak to these individuals who will not confess Christ before men if we cannot see their hearts. Are we not visible to the world by our fruits, (Matt. 7:20) are we not to go into all the world, (Mark 16:15) if they will not confess Him before men, what does the Scriptures say on this matter. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven,” (Matt. 10:33) and yet, in the church ideology, we are to treat them as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Why, what proof have they offered besides showing up to church and following the traditions of man, what proof have they offered of their salvation besides baptism, what works have they done besides fill a pew. Are we to call them fellow believers because of the way they feel? Here then is the ever-prevalent question, what are you going to do about it?
I was once employed at a place where one of the men that worked there was a serious drunk, and try as I might I could not assist him in quitting, or even at cutting back some. The interesting part was that many of those that worked there of course knew this fact about him, would joke and make fun of his situation, even make light of it to his face, but when approached and asked about why they did not attempt to help him, the answer was almost invariably the same, “He’s not my responsibility,” or “It’s none of my business.”
This is the church of today, many pastors are concerned with the amount of people filling the pews, not their individual lives, the people in the pews do not want to get involved, they are nowhere near any desire to help others carry their burdens, (Gal. 6:2) but behind their backs it’s a different story.
My wife and I no longer attend a church where we live in part because of this fact, that when you attempt to help someone carry those burdens they will resent you, they will act as if the burden does not exist, and the generalized answer is almost always, “That’s between God and me,” from them, from others it is “Don’t involve yourself where you are not wanted.” It is an easy slide, this path to the apostacy, and it is being led by those who call themselves Christians.