Undercover Christian

 

2 Timothy 1:8-12

Are you an undercover Christian?  It is a Christian who disguises themselves as a member of the group they work with, live in community with, and they disguise their own identity or use an assumed identity for the purpose of fitting into the group.  That was me to some degree, I was fearful of being branded as a not so cool guy, or even worse, a religious nut.  If you have been undercover, one of your biggest fears is being found out, because once your real identity is exposed you are nailed.

As a new convert from being a Baptist to entering into a relationship with Christ, I went undercover with the people I worked with.  First, I had to come up with a reason why I had quit drinking, I knew they would never understand that God had removed any desire for alcohol from me, and I knew that they would never understand that my motivation for drinking after work was to fit into the group, so I came up with a cover story that was very close to the truth, I preferred a Dr. Pepper.  But it was not long before I got busted by my boss Duane Meehan, when I left my Bible on the dash of the car and he ask me if I was going to Sunday School.  It was only months later when some of the big bosses came to town and we were all at a local bar and as I sat drinking my Dr. Pepper, one of the guys I worked with ask me, “Bob, tell us again why you quit drinking.”  A verse 1Peter 3:15 came into my mind at that moment, “but in you hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”  Who would I listen to, which voice, the one that spoke 1 Peter 3:15 or the one that said, “If you tell the truth your finished, your career with 3M is over,” I chose to quit being a hypocrite, and I define that as a person who is giving a false appearance, that night I owned up to whose I was.  With great fear, I shared with those men that when I ask Jesus Christ into my life he removed the desire for alcohol, and that it was something very personal, and might not apply to anyone else.

That was a big step, but I’ve gone undercover many times since that time, and it all comes down to the fear of men over the fear of God.  I had many men share with me that they also have been undercover Christians, and maybe that is why Paul being lead by the Spirit gave this council to young Timothy and to you and me.  “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, (I thought I had to do it in my power) who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.  But not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.”  Once we become convinced that he is able to guard until that Day, that is when we expose our identity with no fear of man.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice