Thus those who neglect what they have heard believe and do not believe...

  - Columbanus, Sermon XII (Irish, 6th century)

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

  - Hebrews 2.1

Columbanus warned that it was possible both to believe in Jesus and not to believe in Him. He was correct, of course.

Perhaps you have known such a person? He professes to be a Christian. He goes to a respectable church and even carries his Bible along with him. He has many Christian friends. He knows the language of the faith and has often been heard using it - at least, that is, at church and in other Christian gatherings and contexts.

But he has no time for reading and meditating in the Word of God. His prayers, when he has them at all, are perfunctory and devoted to his own interests. Time that might be devoted to discipline or ministry is spent in frivolous diversions or in pursuit of materialistic gain. His conversation during the week engages the same interests as his unsaved friends and colleagues. He has never ventured to offer a word of witness or to stand up for truth in an issue of common concern.

But there he is again on Sunday, believing in Jesus - but not really believing at all.

Can one be regarded as a true believer who neglects the Word of the Lord and fails to pay close attention to the command to bring hoiness to completion in the fear of God? But who will ever challenge or reproach him? For there he is among his Christian friends, engaging his Christian talk, looking for all the world like all the other Christians, comfortable and content in his "faith."

Celtic Christian leaders like Columbanus had little time for such pretense. It is why they frequently offended the Catholic clergy into whose parishes they came preaching the Gospel. It's why pagan kings, who kept up the appearance of Christian faith, hated and persecuted them.

And it's why they turned their world upside-down for Jesus Christ.

Paul threw down the gauntlet to the believers in Corinth. Did they really believe? Had they really been saved? Or were they, by their neglect of God's great salvation, their failure or refusal to live for Christ, drifting away from what they had heard and in danger of being eternally lost (2 Cor. 13.5)?

And what about us? What about you?

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.