The letters of the apostle Paul to the Thessalonian church – a strong church that Paul had planted and nurtured – are, in effect, spiritual report cards. The context is clear; Paul is writing to some of his best students – these are a teacher’s letters to those who have done best in class. Just how good were they? Paul tells us in congratulating them:

“And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere” (1 Thessalonians 1:7).

But Paul doesn’t stop with congratulations – in fact, he only begins there. Having complimented the Thessalonians on their spirituality, notice how he continues:  “…brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1).

The Thessalonians clearly received a grade of  “A” in pleasing God, but Paul urges them to do more – and he doesn’t stop with the first subject:  “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for … you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:9).   Another “A” – another still not good enough.  Paul proceeds in the same way through all the subjects in which the Thessalonians had excelled:  “Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Paul’s second report card to the Thessalonians is not much different:  “… brothers and sisters … your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3);  “… brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good” (2 Thessalonians 3:13).

The pattern is clear. Even though they were among his best students, the apostle repeatedly urges the Thessalonian believers, strong as they were, to do more and more – never to stop doing more and more.

Humanly, it’s natural to want to rest a little after our battles, savor our victories, enjoy the report card and take a break before hitting the next semester. But Paul knew that the more we do with God’s help, the more we become capable of doing. God doesn’t want us to serve and help in any way other than to the fullest extent. He also doesn’t want to  reward us minimally, but to the fullest extent possible. That’s why Paul urges us repeatedly, if we are doing what we should, that is well and good! Now do more and more!

When we hear of counterfeit Christians or Christianity, we tend to think immediately of false doctrines, of heresy and perversion of the truth and of individuals or groups masquerading as “true” Christians.  

​But the situation can be more subtle than that.  The Bible certainly gives us the clear affirmation that  to be a true Christian we must have the Spirit of Christ – of God –  within us, or we simply are not what we think we are. The apostle Paul makes that clear in his letter to the Romans:

“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9).

If we do have that Spirit acting in our lives, Paul tells us, there will be clear “fruits” or evidences (Galatians 5:22-23).  But it’s often easier to see those fruits in the lives of others than it is within ourselves. That’s especially true if we tend to be a naturally outgoing and accepting person, a person with a fair measure of natural human patience or other good quality.  Hopefully, as Christians, we can see growth in our lives regardless of where we started on the “goodness curve,” but as C.S. Lewis famously argued, some do start out higher on the curve.

Perhaps that is why Paul gave another clue in Romans – an actual “litmus test” if you like – as to what it looks like to be truly acknowledging God in our lives.  But he did that in a place and a way that you might not have noticed:

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him … And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:21, 28).

Now when we read these verses it is easy to see them as only applying to those without God – the pagans and God-rejecting individuals of whom Paul was apparently speaking in Romans 1. But we should not miss the obvious broader application of what Paul says.  He doesn’t say that he is speaking of those who don’t know God, but of those who do (vs. 21).  Paul speaks of individuals who do know God but who demonstrate two very telling signs: they don’t honor God and they don’t give thanks to him.

But why would we apply this to apparent believers – especially if it is not the group Paul was  primarily speaking of?  The perhaps unexpected answer is found in the word “debased.”  We read this word with our understanding of the English concepts behind it and think only of moral or spiritual  degeneration.  But the Greek word Paul wrote holds a very different significance.  The word “debased” in Romans 1:28 is translated from a-dokimon, a word used of precious metals and coinage and meaning not standing up to a test of authenticity, not approved – in other words, fake or counterfeit.   The word was, in fact, regularly used of counterfeit money.

So Paul’s point is that God allowed people who knew him (and that could be the God-rejecting or the nominally God-accepting) to take on a counterfeit mind – a counterfeit Christianity where that applies – but the reason was not doctrinal lack of understanding; it was because they failed the tests of honoring God and thanking him.

It’s natural to think that theological litmus tests should be more complex or involve more intellectual issues.  But Paul makes it clear that  the most basic yet profoundly true tests of whether we are reacting properly to our knowledge of God and living as true Christians – or whether we are a counterfeit – are found in if we honor God in what we think, say and do, and if we give thanks to him. These are things that we can usually see and know about ourselves no matter where we started on the curve.
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Fortunately we can use this knowledge.  Being aware of these principles is one way we can avoid counterfeit Christians – and I don’t mean the kind we might see in church, but the kind we never want to see in the mirror. 

“Therefore … let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 ESV).

Every New Year an astonishing number of people in the Western world resolve to lose weight and to make their health, appearance and lives more what they want them to be. Every year the vast majority of those tens of millions of people fail.  Most resolutions only last a month or so  – if that – and “I want to lose weight” becomes “I wanted to lose weight, but …”.

In talking about laying aside the extra weight, the author of Hebrews wasn’t talking about physical weight, of course, but about stripping away things that affect us in the race which we run.  The same can be said about all kinds of racing – from sailboats to cycles: the less non-essential weight we pull, the less we are slowed down.

That’s a principle that can affect us as we go into a new year, also – again, not in terms of physical weight, but the weight of responsibilities and activities that slow us and give us less time for more important things. Each year many of us make resolutions to try to do better at some of the things that are important to us – perhaps to spend more time in prayer, study, or service.  But adding more things to do to an already full “to do” list is often doomed from the outset.

Yet we try.  For example, here in the United States it is estimated that about 40% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions – but only about 8% of those who make resolutions say they are successful in carrying them out.  It’s certainly not for the lack of desire, but one of the leading reasons people give for failed resolutions is simply lack of time – the discouragement of trying to add an extra physical workout or daily Bible study session to an already overloaded day.

That’s where running lighter comes in.  The quickest, most effective way to run faster, more easily, more effectively, is to drop non-essential weight. The way to live more easily, more effectively, is often to drop non-essential things that slow us down.  Here’s where it comes down to resolutions.  A recent study of successful resolution makers found an interesting similarity between people from many different backgrounds and lifestyles:  those who were most successful in adding something they desired to their lives were very often the ones who dropped or cut back some non-essential in order to do it.

It’s the simplest of principles, but it’s one that works.  If you would like to really make progress in a good direction this year, why not resolve to add something you know you need in life – more time with the Book, more time in prayer, more time in helping others, or whatever. But if you don’t want to become one of the 92% who resolve but fail – drop something else. It might mean less time in front of the television or the computer, less time texting or shopping, or any number of things that take your daily time.  It can be anything that could be trimmed back a little, cut down some.    
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The fact is, if you are careful to drop something for everything you resolve to add, cut back something for everything new you want to do, your chances of success are increased dramatically.  So if you have wanted to do more in some aspect of your Christian life, try doing less in some other area of your day and see how it helps.  

In the days of the old sailing ships, the greatest danger most sailors faced was not piracy or storms at sea, but simply being “becalmed” or “adrift” perhaps hundreds of miles away from land. 

The word “becalmed” may sound peaceful, but it was a terrifying one to mariners on the old sail-powered boats. With no movement of wind or water, a ship was literally adrift – floating aimlessly for days or weeks on end until winds or currents took up again, or the sailors perished from lack of food and water.    

In a similar way, for most Christians, over the course of our lives, the most dangerous enemy of spiritual growth is probably not some sudden temptation or assault of our spiritual “enemy” or some personal “storm” of life,  but the danger of simply drifting. The author of the Book of Hebrews warned believers of this very situation:  “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Hebrews 2:1). Notice that in this instance we are not warned against being pulled violently into temptation or spiritual failure, but simply against the danger of drifting like a leaf on a river or a bottle in the sea.

Our spiritual lives can begin to drift for a number of reasons. On the one hand we may become so overwhelmed with work, family or other things that we lose track of where we are going or do not see that, on a treadmill, we are going nowhere. Busy as we are, we are spiritually adrift and getting nowhere despite the energy we are exerting in life.  On the other hand, in an almost opposite manner, we can begin to drift in boredom. When everything is going well and we have no pressing responsibilities, it is sometimes easy to drift aimlessly in frivolous pursuits that begin to eat up the hours and days so that we eventually find ourselves drifting without real spiritual action and growth.  When this happens, we are unempowered to resist the currents of life, and spiritually we are more in danger of being “tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).

The old sailing ship analogy can help us here.  Just as sailing ships received their power from the movement of the wind or sea currents, so the Christian life is really empowered by the Spirit of God, which is itself so often symbolized in the Bible by moving air (John 3:8, Acts 2:1-4) or moving water (John 3:5, 7:38-39).   When that spirit does not flow through us, we become spiritually “becalmed” and adrift. We may feel fine otherwise, but spiritual direction and growth are greatly diminished or not present at all.

The answer to this potential danger is given by the author of Hebrews, as we saw: “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).  We certainly keep the Spirit alive and strong within us through contact with God in prayer, and also, as we see here, in study and paying attention to the things we have heard.  Whether we are adrift through overwork or through boredom, so often the spiritual result is the same – we lag behind in prayer and study because we either feel we do not have time for them, or we feel bored with them. 

But the answer in both cases is not less, but more spiritual activity to “stir up” the Spirit within us as Paul wrote to Timothy: “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). These verses are usually quoted in the context of the power we receive from the Spirit, but they are equally talking about our fanning (like a blowing wind) the Spirit to increase its action.  We must take the initiative to fan the Spirit into action through our spiritual activity, and the Spirit in turn then directs and empowers us.  Spiritual growth is always accomplished this way – we are only growing to the degree that we are not drifting; we are only alive to the degree we are not adrift!