A “Just” Religion?

I long ago lost track of how many times I’ve heard them. And each time I hear them, deep inside I cringe. To what wince-worthy assertions do I refer? The kind that make unfortunate use of the word “just”: “God longs to hear your prayers—just a few minutes a day will make Him smile!”; “God loves it when we spend time in His Word—just a verse or two a day will give us all the strength we need!”; “There’s a world to be reached for Christ—just a few minutes a week in service to others would turn the tide in God’s favor!” I feel nauseated just writing that.

To be clear, what keeps well-intended Christians repeating these “just” statements is that they contain a tiny measure of truth. In the case of a thawing atheist, for instance, God really is thrilled when they pray for just a few seconds. For the child who’s just beginning a meaningful relationship with Christ, He really is thrilled if they read just a few verses a day.

But here is where the efficacy of “just” squarely ends. Because for any Christian of experience, a religion built on “just” is not merely inadequate, but profoundly pernicious.

Can you imagine what the early Christian church would have been like if Jesus had called the disciples to spend “just a few minutes a week” in service to others? Can we even remotely conceive of how different our lives today would be had Jesus committed to spend “just a few minutes a day” in prayer with His heavenly Father?

Full commitment to Christ and His cause is the only path to true freedom, fulfillment, and a finished work.

How about the Advent movement? What if James and Ellen White and J. N. Andrews and Uriah Smith and a hundred other Adventist pioneers had sought to give “just a little” to God and His end-time mission? What would the church have become in their day? What would have been the state of the church’s ministry and witness to the world?

And what of us today? What if most of us today (unlike our pioneers) were to choose a “just” religion and minimize our commitment to God and His work? Hmm. My guess is that attendance at our churches would probably shrink to half of book membership. Only a small percentage of church members would likely engage in meaningful and regular Bible study, prayer, or sharing Christ with others. A shortage of candidates for pastoral ministry would almost certainly develop. Church schools across the land would likely start struggling for adequate funding. Public evangelism would probably become rare. And our growth rates, were it not for first-generation immigrant ministry, would probably become small or even negative in some locales.

Which sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it? Indeed, where found, the tepidness of the church in the West today is all too often the direct result of a “just” religion.

If your heart and schedule are fully God’s today, amen! And if not, remember afresh: Full commitment to Christ and His cause is the only path to true freedom, fulfillment, and a finished work. A “just” religion is not worth living. But those who lose their life for Christ’s sake will find it, and so much more.