The Surface Christian.

Christianity has a surface level too. It’s that top layer of Christian stuff we’re all familiar with: Reading a quick devotion, attending church or youth group, throwing a Bible verse in our Instagram profile, only dating people who say they’re Christians. It’s enough to be different-ish from the world, but not enough to facilitate real growth. In a word, it’s shallow.

The Shallow Christian

His faith is skin-deep. As long as life treats him well and his prayers are answered, he believes. He seeks his soul to be soothed, so it is crucial to attend where the music will give him what he needs. He looks for sermons to be short and lightly seasoned with the scriptures, but not on anything controversial, for he hates confrontation and believes this to be condemning. ‘Live and let live – in all peace, who am I to judge?’ – is his motto. God is about love, and we are all His children, so as long as we can just live together.

He reads a lot, but not from the bible. The bible is not interesting enough and full of hard-to-understand things, if he were honest, so he looks for other’s take on what it says. All that matters to God is that he believes that His Son died for him on the cross anyway. He prides himself on his faith because he tells everyone that Jesus loves them and does not condemn them and all they need to do is believe. He is at peace in his faith and content in resting in the love of God.

This man walks in his own devised ‘faith’ where it pleases his flesh and has nothing to do with the condition of his soul. The lie he is happy to walk in gives him what he wants, and because he is content with this, he believes this to be God’s peace. He continues to fill the blackness of his unregenerate soul with sin because he remains in bondage and sees the chains that bind him not as something to want to be free from but what he needs and must have and do. He continues to fight and argue with those around him because he is self-righteous. They are wrong, and he that has been wronged, so he stands prideful and perfectly right in his own eyes. He seeks to be soothed because of the stress of life that envelopes him and reaches for his substances and/or other ways of escape that bring him peace and comfort. He will never let these go because they are what calms him, and he feels God understands this. No one is perfect, and ‘by grace go I’ – he says and regards himself humble before God in recognizing that he is no saint, and God knows his heart means well at least. He does not see that he is the same as yesterday, the day before and last year. He has not grown in the inner man in becoming the new creation that new birth in Jesus Christ affords. He does not see that he is far from the truth because the truth is not in him – and continues to live a lie.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 2 Cor 4: 3,4.

The Gospel of Christ will never leave us in the same place it found us in – we will be transformed into new men and women to reveal the glory and life of Christ in us. Do not settle for anything less then this!

The actions themselves are not the problem. Reading the Bible is an essential practice for spiritual growth, as is church attendance. Many shallow Christians don’t even know they are living on the surface; they’ve never been taught there’s more to the walk of faith! No one has opened the door to theology, making it interesting and understandable to them. And no one has told them that knowing God deeply and intimately is the true key to the Christian life.

Thus the greater weight of responsibility falls on teachers who continually produce surface-level materials for these believers to consume. The sooner we can recognize shallow teaching, the quicker we can about-face and find something that truly facilitates our spiritual growth. Here are some things to look for .

How does this affect Christians?

Surface Christianity is often subconscious. We fall into it easily by reading the Bible to learn personal application, instead of the primary way to learn about God and how we can relate to Him. This makes Christians quickly bored by any Bible study that takes effort, and leads them to gloss over “difficult” books that don’t seem to apply immediately to life.

It can also twist their view of God and, therefore, how they understand and relate to Him. They have a hard time understanding the role of the Holy Spirit to lead them into holiness and godliness, because they don’t know what following His leading looks like. Personal growth is primarily by their own strength and self-improvement.

In short, surface Christianity is catastrophic to a life of true faith!

How do we fix it?

By now, we know surface Christianity is more common than we thought. Because it contains pieces necessary to a robust life of faith, many assume this material is enough to “go on”—a solid spiritual diet, if you will. Little do they know it’s spiritual junk food.

To get beyond skin-deep theology to true discipleship, there are several essential steps:

1-RETURN TO DILIGENT STUDY OF SCRIPTURE—EVEN THE HARD PARTS.

2-EMPHASIZE THE PERSON OF GOD AND HOW TO KNOW HIM.

3-LEARN HOW TO LISTEN FOR GOD’S VOICE AND OBEY HIM.

4-BE ACCOUNTABLE TO A CHURCH BODY.

Growing beyond surface Christianity.

Half-gospels will be preached as long as we are on this earth, but believers don’t have to settle for them. Instead, use your foundation in Scripture to filter the Christian messages you hear. Teach fellow believers how to discern the true motive for changed character, and how God is the one who works it, not us.

The more men/ women who rise up in dedication to the Word, speaking truth with grace and sensitivity to their hearers, the more people will hear the true gospel and experience the power of God for salvation.

We don’t have to settle for status-quo faith. Jesus died for so much more.