Are You Spiritually Alive or Just Going Through the Motions?
In the 18th and 19th centuries, people lived with a terrifying fear called taphophobia: the fear of being buried alive. Medical technology was so limited that it was often difficult to determine if someone was truly dead or just had an extremely weak pulse. This led to the invention of “safety coffins” with breathing tubes, bells, and flags that could signal if someone woke up underground.
Today, we might wonder if the same question applies to the church: Are we truly spiritually alive, or are we just going through the motions?
What Does It Mean to Be Spiritually Alive?
The apostle John wrote his second letter to address a church facing a spiritual crisis. False teachers had left the congregation and were spreading dangerous teachings that denied Jesus came in the flesh. John’s solution was simple yet profound: return to the beginning. Return to both to God’s original design in Genesis and to the foundational truth of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
The Foundation of Spiritual Life
John begins his first letter by emphasizing what he and the other apostles had personally experienced: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the word of life.”
For John, everything centered on being a disciple of Jesus. Not just believing facts about Him, but actually following Him, learning from Him, and being transformed into His likeness.
How Can You Tell If a Church Is Spiritually Alive?
John identifies two vital signs of spiritual life that appear five times each in the opening verses of his second letter: truth and love.
Truth: The Pulse of Spiritual Life
Truth isn’t just intellectual knowledge or facts we can learn. For John, truth is a person: Jesus Christ. To know the truth means to follow Jesus as His apprentice or disciple.
It’s striking that in the entire New Testament, the word “Christian” appears only three times, always in a derogatory sense. But the word “disciple” occurs over 250 times. This reveals what truly mattered to Jesus and the early church: not just making an intellectual decision about salvation, but making a life commitment to follow and become like Jesus.
Jesus promised: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).
Love: The Breath of Spiritual Life
If truth is the pulse, then love is the breath of spiritual life. But John describes love not as a feeling or sentiment, but as a path we walk, specifically, walking in obedience to God’s commands.
John writes: “This is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”
Love means following in Jesus’ footsteps, living out the greatest commandments: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Why Truth and Love Must Go Together
You cannot separate truth and love, they must work together. Truth without love becomes bullying. You’re just yelling louder to make your point. Love without truth becomes passive enabling. You’re just telling people to “follow their heart” regardless of consequences.
Setting Healthy Boundaries
John warns the church about false teachers: “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God… Anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them.”
This doesn’t mean being unkind to those who disagree, but it does mean protecting the church from dangerous teachings that lead people away from Jesus rather than toward Him.
The Jesus Way in a Binary World
We live in an increasingly polarized world where everything seems to be “this side or that side.” But there is a third option: the Jesus way. This way is defined by self-sacrificial love, laying down our lives for the good of others.
Jesus didn’t call thousands to stand on opposing sides and shout. He called twelve people and said, “Follow me, and we’re going to change the world.” He never asked anyone to be a leader. He asked them to be followers who could then invite others to follow them as they followed Christ.
What the World Needs Now
Our world is burning with conflict and division. Perhaps the most loving thing we can do is tell our friends and neighbors: “I know everyone’s telling you those are the only choices, but there is the Jesus way.”
The question isn’t whether we can appear to be alive spiritually – that’s relatively easy. The question is whether we’re actually being transformed into Christ’s likeness.
Life Application
Dallas Willard once said: “The greatest issue facing the world today, with all of its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who by profession or culture are identified as Christians will become disciples… steadily learning from him how to live the life of the kingdom of the heavens into every corner of human existence.”
This week, honestly examine your spiritual life. Are you more concerned with appearing to be spiritually alive or with actually being transformed into Christ’s likeness?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Am I truly following Jesus as His disciple, or just going through religious motions?
- Is my life characterized by both truth (knowing and following Jesus) and love (self-sacrificial service to others)?
- When faced with the world’s binary choices, do I point people to the Jesus way?
- Am I more focused on looking spiritually mature or actually growing in Christ-likeness?
The world doesn’t need more people choosing sides in endless debates. It needs disciples of Jesus who can say, “Follow me as I follow Christ,” and demonstrate that there truly is a better way.