“Is Annie a Christian?” I asked one of her young friends who had been telling me about her.
“Oh yes, I think so,” was the answer; “she is such a nice girl. Everybody likes her at school. She never gets mad, and she is always ready to do a good turn to others.”
Then Annie must be “a nice girl,” as her young friends said, thought I.
But it was a mistake to suppose that she was of course a Christian simply because she was kind-hearted and liked by all. Her friend who told me about her was judging by appearances.
An amiable disposition, a nice character, doesn’t make one a Christian. You find an amiable disposition in pets—a gentle kitten, a good dog, a nice horse.
Take, for instance, mother tiger and her family of tiger cubs. They play together and perhaps they do not fight. But oh, just let a man come near, and see the difference. Mother tiger is no friend to man, as even her babies will snarl and growl if he draws near.
How often do we find boys and girls pleasant and likable, but when we speak to them of Christ, and ask them if they know what it is to have their sins forgiven, we find resentment, and perhaps outright opposition and hatred. Deep down in their heart they do not love God, and they do not want Jesus as their Saviour.
I hope Annie was a Christian, but, if so, it was not her kind nature and good temper that made her so. A Christian is one who has discovered his or her sinfulness and has fled to the Lord Jesus for pardon and salvation. Such a one receives power from Him to live for Him day by day.
Are you a Christian, in this true sense of the word?
ML-11/22/1964