July 25, AD 2011

A common trait among half-hearted or fleshly Christians is passivity. And it's one that is often undetected because it is relatively easy for deceptive fleshliness to disguise itself as righteousness.

The Bible indicates there are three wrongful perceptions of God’s law under grace. “Legalism” is the more widely-known of those, followed by “antinomianism” (disregard for law). The most obscure of the three is “libertinism.”

The active libertine abuses his freedom in Christ by what he does (“sins of commission”), and the passive libertine abuses his freedom by what he does not do (“sins of omission”).

Passivity can be disguised as Christian virtue—such as humility, resting in God, or loving God and others.

Let’s consider these, beginning with counterfeit humility.

Counterfeit humility
Passivity and humility are in opposition to one another. Passivity is rooted in prideful self-will that ignores obedience to the will of God. Humility, on the other hand, is rooted in humble, faithful, loving obedience to the will of God.

Pretext of "resting in God"
Passivity that attempts to pass itself off as “resting in God,” is actually the biblical sin of idleness, apathy or indifference to doing the will of God.

“Resting in God” is sometimes used deceptively to conceal the fact that a person is actually resting in their personal comfort zone. And to be obedient to God might actually cause some sort of discomfort. So don’t rock the boat. Don’t upset the apple cart. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

James gives this warning about passivity: “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

The "love" copout
One convenient copout for a passive Christian is to attempt to give the impression that they fulfill the two Greatest Commandments: they profess to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-39). Therefore, they wrongly assume that their “love” fulfills the law (verse 40) and therefore they are not responsible for further obedience to the law.

But that is a perversion of the two Greatest Commandments.

Passivity does not demonstrate love for God and others; it's mostly talk and little action. For Godly love is not fleshly passivity, but is spiritually active. Truly resting in God is altogether compatible with dynamically loving God and others.

The blessings of loving obedience
Peter writes: “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments” (2 John 6a). Truly resting in God results in the blessings of peace, joy and satisfaction that the Whole-Hearted Christian experiences in fellowship with the Spirit of Christ, but which the passive Christian does not experience because he is out of step with the Spirit, quenches the Spirit, and grieves the Spirit.

Thus, passivity, as a sin of omission, functionally divides the heart's soul from spirit, which, in this sense, inhibits the impartation of grace from the Spirit. Paul reminds us that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5b).

Those passive Laodiceans
Christ’s attitude toward passivity is disclosed to us in our Lord’s message to the church at Laodicea—a message to passive Christians. He told them, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot” (Revelation 3:15).

Interpreting this requires some understanding of Laodicea. This Roman city was a commercial center, known for its medicinal eye salve and textiles. It had one major problem: There was no local water supply. Water had to be brought in by aqueduct from neighboring hot springs. By the time the water flowed through the city, it was lukewarm. Beyond the city, it was cold.

So when our Lord spoke to the Laodiceans in terms of contrasting water temperatures, they immediately drew the connection. “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,” He went on to admonish them, “I will spit [literally vomit] you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

“Lukewarm” believers are passive. The passive person may simply be regarded as one who is laid back, under motivated, or a slow starter. But the Bible indicates that passivity is a serious, fleshly condition of the divided heart.

People can be passive toward almost anything, but here we will focus on passivity to the New Testament commands and laws. James writes, “But someone may well say, ‘you have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works’” (James 2:18). And, in verse 26, James concludes: “faith without works is dead.” To restate that in positive terms, “faith with works is alive”!

The passive Christian has a poor “works ethic.” He might try to convince others that to focus on obedience to the law places him in danger of being legalistic. But, the truth be known, he simply wants to do his own thing, without being encumbered by obedience to God’s law.

Freedom in Christ is not independence
The passive libertine finds comfort in condemning legalism and fleshliness; however, he must be careful not to give the impression that he is antinomian—against the law. His position, as he might have us believe, is that because he is righteousness and not "under the law," the exercise of his freedom in Christ could not possibly be sinful! His distorted concepts of grace and freedom allow him to be obedient if he feels like it, or to ignore obedience if he feels like it.

As independent and self-sufficient as this believer might perceive himself to be, his freedom in Christ does not biblically translate into independence from God’s law. There is no “middle ground” between bondage in Adam and freedom in Christ—not positionally, relationally, ontologically, conditionally, functionally, or behaviorally. There is no true independence and freedom outside of Jesus and the will of God.

Satan sought such God-like autonomy, but discovered it was an impossibility. And then Adam and Eve made the same fatal mistake and discovery.

Freedom, in the sense of being that fantasy middle-ground of self-sufficiency and autonomy, is a false idol, with which a believer can carry on a spiritually adulterous affair.

Amazing grace
God intended for His law to guide us into a life of grace in Christ Jesus, as well as to protect us, and in other ways to bless us along the way. Now, as His chosen children, we grow to discover His overwhelming love for us and need to understand that He never intended for us to relate to Him through law alone or outside of His law, but rather through our loving obedience and His amazing grace.

Once we taste the grace of God—experience the love, freedom, peace, and joy of His fellowship—He becomes our heart’s desire and the central focus of our life. Paul expressed this with simple eloquence when he wrote, “For me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).

William Cowper, more than two centuries ago, expressed freedom in the context of law under grace in this poem:

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.

Then all my servile works, were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His way.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled,
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

—William Cowper, Love Constraining to Obedience (1777)

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Read More:

"Law & Grace" (Chapter 8, from The Ways of the Heart by Frank Allnutt).
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