What If . . .?

Did you ever ponder the question, “What would happen if . . .?”  Or maybe the shorter version of the question, “What if . . .?”  After the “if “ many things could be filled in. Personally, I have thought a lot about this question as it concerns the followers of Jesus Christ, also known as the Church. While I have given thought to the local church I attend, I also have considered the Church in North America. I find myself asking, “What would happen if the Church in North America acted like it truly believes what it teaches?” Understanding that a church is a collection of individuals with the same religious belief system, I guess the question really is, “What would happen if each individual who claims to be a

Christ follower lived like they truly believed the teachings of the Bible, or at least the teachings of Jesus Christ? How would our individual lives change? How would our society, our communities and our states change? How would our nations change? When I ask these questions I am not just asking what would happen to some of the hot button issues like abortion and gay marriage or which politicians would be removed and imprisoned for corruption. I tend to think on a more personal level.

What would happen if we followed Jesus’ teaching in Mark 12:29-31? In that passage Jesus tells us the most important commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. He then continues and says that the second most important commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. What would happen if we dedicated ourselves to loving God intensely and let that love for God show through our actions? It seems that we would certainly show love to our neighbors. Even if we expanded the common definition of neighbor to match the definition Jesus used in His parable about the Good Samaritan, our intense love for God would still have us loving our neighbors. How would that “love in action” change the public perception of who the Church is and what the Church does?

What would happen if we really believed and acted on Jesus’ teaching to seek first the kingdom of God? (Matt. 6) Those of us who live in the United States have been taught from the time we were small children that our goal in life is to build a “kingdom” for our family and ourselves. We understood our primary goal in life was to own as many creature comforts as possible and to own or control as many financial assets as possible. Unfortunately, in this belief system the seeking of God’s kingdom is usually a long way down the list of goals, if it is on the list at all.

What would happen if we really believed the duty of every believer was to make disciples of Jesus Christ as is stated in Matthew 28:19-20? How would that change our personal sense of urgency about not only, witnessing to unbelievers, but also how we teach and nurture new believers? Currently we, as the Church, seem to be replicating what we are; comfortable Christians who do not let Christianity interfere with our pursuits. What would happen if we let our Christianity control our lives and encouraged new believers to replicate Christ instead of our comfortable, non-sacrificial lifestyle?

What if we believed enough to act? What if we acted like we believed Jesus’ teachings were more than platitudes? What would happen if we stopped putting God in a box that fits our lifestyle? What if we just obeyed fully and then stepped back and just let God act? It seems that many times we fail to obey and then step back because we do not really believe. We do not fully trust God. It is a normal human struggle to have difficulty trusting what we cannot see. I understand that, but as I read the Bible I find that when individuals trusted and obeyed, God moved in titanic proportions. I find myself asking if I believed like they did, and I behaved like I believed, what would happen? How explosive would the growth of God’s kingdom be?