I wanted to name this post “Judas And The Modern Christian”. Then I changed it to “Judas (An Ode To The Modern Christian)”. Finally, I settled on just simply “Judas”. Because no more words were needed. The name alone is enough.

“When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’”

-From The Gospel of John

Judas. The name is notorious. Infamous. It has become synonymous with one word- Betrayal. Not just does The Redeemed know the story behind the name and what it means, but so does The Unredeemed. All of Man, I can imagine, has heard this name. All of man, I can imagine, knows that it is an accursed name. One that should be forbidden to be issued to another living being. We all know the name.

Imagine a man that walked with The Christ. A man that bore witness to countless miracles that defied reality. Water into wine. The calming of the sea. Walking upon the sea. And calling a man, dead for four days, to walk from his grave. Imagine this man watching the paralytic stand and walk. Imagine this man seeing Legion disperse into the swine, to drive them into the depths of the sea. Imagine him hearing The Beatitudes, where everything that you had thought that you had known was completely turned on its head. Imagine hearing your brothers say “You are The Messiah!”. Imagine having your feet washed just moments before you were to deceive The Lord, knowing that He knew your heart. Before you were to mark yourself in history as The Betrayer. And this man did, in fact, betray Him. For what? Thirty pieces of silver. The price of a mere slave.

Imagine all of that. All of the experience of walking side by side as The Son of God led you through the wilderness of your life for years. Teaching you in Love. Showing you Love. Imagine trading it all in for the value of a man who is nothing more than meaningless property.

Many Christians have over the years shook their head in disbelief at Judas. “How could he?” we would ask. We still ask. “How on earth could a man be so close to Christ, yet betray him for something so cheap and demeaning? It’s as if he never knew Jesus! I would never do that!”, The Modern Christian believes. However I ask of you this: 

Would you?

Could you?

Have you?

“Rabbi, is it I?”

-Judas Iscariot

The Modern Christian is something to behold. He harbors deep with his heart the fear of Holiness. A desire to be just like The World. Curses roll from the same tongue that savors the alcohol as he and the boys throw ‘em back. Nicotine and weed dull the nerves as he sits in the chair to put the final touches on his sleeve. He and his live-in girlfriend have great plans for their unborn child. So enjoy the fun while he can. Or why should he even stop? He is still thinking about the bloodlust from that horror flick that they watched last night, as raunchy pop music fills the air. But let us with that forked tongue and marked fornicating body…

Praise The Christ!

“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

-From The Book of James

I get it. I understand. I am not out of touch with reality and the human mind. The World feels good. Our Sin nature begs for the dopamine hits. The rise that makes our heart race and blood rush. It is only human nature to hear the approving laughter at our crude speech. It is only human nature to alter our senses with chemicals. It is only human nature to enjoy the pleasures of illicit sex. It is only human nature to desire that which is forbidden by Righteousness. It is this stain that has driven Man to reach out to Christ for Deliverance for millennia. To break away from The Darkness that has imprisoned him. That which has kept him in the dungeon far longer than he would have liked. It is the void within his heart that has yearned to be filled with The Spirit of Christ. It is the change from within that has been the impetus for him desiring to joyously share his Salvation with The World. A struggle to die to himself daily as the Sin nature has tried time and time again to drag him back in. A hunger for Victory.

Yet now he has become numb as he settles for less.

However, I must confess something. Here at Refined4him, I have written about this wanderlust that The Modern Christian has with The World. Smoking, drinking, cursing, tattoos, fornication, etc. And I have come to the conclusion that I am wrong. It is true that The Word tells us to not be of The World, but to be of Christ in The World. However, The Modern Christian is the new face of a New Christianity. Because of The Love of God, Grace, and Forgiveness, we can live as we wish without consequence. Sanctification, the process of dying to ourselves daily to be more Christ-like, and Holiness, the desire to be separate from The World that we can represent the true saving power of The Gospel… are dead. Archaic relics confined to the boring pews of Grandma’s little country church. They are of no more and have no place in the life of The Modern Christian. Worship is no longer about becoming less that He may increase. It is no longer about One Body corporately worshiping on the same page as one. New Christianity is about being entertained by experience. It is about being as The World that you may attract The World. Hopefully, somewhere in that meeting, we can convince The World that Christ somehow makes us unlike The World that we seek to emulate.

We need not worry about what The Unredeemed may call us, seeing as we have taken the black and white that comes upon us at Salvation and have mixed it back to gray. “Hypocrite” may no longer roll from their tongue. Because The World has become numb to their Sin. They see nothing wrong with the substances, fornications, and foul words. So to witness The Redeemed doing likewise would no longer be shocking to them. Because there is no longer shame. They see it as natural human behavior. So The Modern Christian can have their Jesus and The World too. Even if it means they no longer can exemplify the change that comes from falling before The Cross. God forbid that we should surrender our all.

The times and tides have changed. Hypocrisy no longer casts a shadow on The Worldly Christian. No. It is difficult for The World to name someone a hypocrite, when they do not even see the difference. I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears who is the new Hypocrite in Christianity. From the mouth of The New Christian, it is The Old Christian. Those that sit in the pews of the small country church, adorned in suits and dresses as they sing “Come Thou Fount”. I have heard them say that The Old Christian dresses well because they are being holier than thou. Their piety is a mask that they force upon themselves to feel like they are accepted by God. It also exists to silently play judge, jury, and executioner to those that walk in wearing torn jeans and faded Budweiser T-shirts. Because it has nothing to do with dressing well to pay respect and reverence to the house of God in worship. Consecration means nothing. That they sing the old boring hymns to the melody of the piano because they are afraid of change. Because it has nothing to do with congregational singing in bringing glory to God with songs that have not been corrupted by the sounds of the modern world. But The New Christianity is more than an acceptance and celebration of the ways of The World. The Sunday morning worship music should now be indistinguishable from what we hear on secular radio. Our dress should now be as sloppy as our theology and how we live our lives before Man. Because church is now about us and our desires. We will clean our language up on Sunday, between the hours of 11AM and 12PM.

“For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy.”

-Leviticus 11:44

There was a time in history when God called His people to be different. To be peculiar against the backdrop of a secular pagan society. From the outer garments, what was on the plate, and circumcision, to the circumcision of the heart that prompts us to desire to be different. But no more! Now we adore the ways of The World. No longer standing in its opposition. But running with it. Chasing it. Allowing it to bind us to spiritual stagnation. Allowing it to change us. Allowing it to change the construct of The Church. Wanting our Sin Nature to be fed. Becoming indistinguishable from The World. Because it is much easier to surrender to our old self and conform with human nature, than it is to abide in Christ and watch the old us breathe its last. May Christ be the only One who struggled to carry His cross! May Christ be the only One who chose to nail Sin on Calvary! May He be the only One who had to drink from the cup, while ours overflows with vodka and whisky! I understand. Some wars are too difficult to endure. Especially The Spiritual War.

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’”

-The Apostle Peter

This is now the new face of Christianity. We have traded Holiness for the cheap riches of The World. We have blurred the lines that separate Sin and Salvation. We have dimmed The Light that should go forth from us, only to become darkened as The Unrepentant. To show them that the power of The Cross is nothing more than dead words. To show them that the death and resurrection of The Christ serves no purpose. Because it is ineffective and useless. And The Old Christian is wrong for saying it. Because, according to The New Christian, his piety is a mask that covers his desire to be of The World as well. For some he is prideful. For some he is “holier than thou”. For some, his desire for Holiness and calling out sinful hypocrisy makes him a Pharisee. A Legalist that clings too tightly to the pages of Scripture. Let go dude and chill out! Jesus is your homeboy!

The New Christian is no longer defined by Christ. But he is defined by Judas. To walk with Jesus. To know of His works. To know of His power. To agree that He is more than The Messiah, but He is The Lord of Lords, The King of Kings, The Son of God. Yet, despite all that he has known and sees, he sells Jesus for the cheapness of his own pleasure and desire. To reduce Him to nothing more than a name and a good luck charm. To proclaim that Name Above All Names as Savior before Hedonistic Pagans, as they look upon your obscure gesture, asking “Savior from what? You are no different than us.”

Come! Let us glorify and praise Jesus with The World, and seal the transaction with a kiss.

“But Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’”

-From The Gospel of Luke