Last week I received a story in my Apple News feed of a dating phenom called "orbiting". Apparently a single man or woman who continues to pursue a friendship, but will not commit to marriage, is "orbiting". And in the opinion of a number of women, orbiting men would never make good husbands in any case because while they may claim to enjoy a woman's company, orbiters lack true commitment to that relationship.
In the Book of Revelations Jesus describes "Christian orbiters". He says this about them,
"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." -Revelations 3:15-16
We live in a time many claim to be Christian's and "believe in Jesus", but do not live for Jesus. But rather than throw stones at someone else's glass house it's more helpful to examine our own lives.
This morning I made a short list of things Jesus commanded us to do, that I've not been unwilling to fully commit to doing. I won't air my sin here, but I did before God. The question I had to ask myself was, "Why would I not obey Jesus fully in these areas?" It's not a complicated question. If Jesus said his true followers must imitate him, why would I not do that?
Here's my theory. I think all Christians understand they will never be perfect. So we make peace with our conscious by settling for "good enough". Good enough is a form of divine moral math, whereby we add up both our virtues and sins and accept a certain equilibrium based largely on other Christians we know. As long as our behavior is better than the average Christian we respect, the temptation is to relax. Hense the saying, "Most of us are the moral average of our three closest Christian friends."
I have great Christian friends but Jesus never said, "Come follow them." Come follow me, means, "Belike me - live like me". I know I can do better. So do you.