When we are only “half-Christian” we often feel a kind of envy for the worldly folks. They have no inhibitions about brushing aside an undesired competitor, nor do they bother themselves with the plight of others. They get over a bit of tax chiseling, or a little adultery, without too many bruises to their conscience! But we “half-Christians” have trouble with our consciences – we have some inhibitions and scruples. We are not tough, red-blooded sinners, but we also are not saints who have exchanged sin for the higher joy of peace with God. We have neither, and this is the trouble. We “half-Christians” are always running with half-steam.
Great theological thinkers of the Middle Ages said that ”half-Christianity” always leads to dejection and that depression always has its roots in a divided heart. Only the simple and the single-hearted are happy, for only the single-hearted man has a clear direction and goal and a whole, unbroken, unambiguous Savior. The man who wants only a bit of God always finds God to be only a brake, an impediment, a pain; but, he who wholly wants God learns that He is the source of power who gives a man freedom and verve. Following Him is the most joyful thing in the world because He frees a man from all the things that tempt and torment the half-hearted.
If a man is having a struggle with the shadows of sadness and depression, he must ask himself whether the reason may not be this division in his heart.
Borrowed
Discipleship
If the basic Christian thesis is true, and Jesus is the Son of God, then you can never be the same after your discovery as you were before. You cannot fit Jesus at the end of a microscope or at the end of a telescope and say, “How interesting!” Jesus Christ is not interesting. He is profoundly, morally, and spiritually disturbing and challenging. If there is anybody who forces us to get off the fence and to enter the field of moral commitment, it is Jesus Christ. If He is God, He deserves our worship, not just our patronage – not just our admiration, but our adoration.
John R. W. Stott