“Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all….”

              -2 Chronicles 31:1

In our society of lukewarm churches and half-hearted Christians, it doesn’t take much to impress the people around you. Simply decide to serve God with your whole heart and live a life of obedience to His Word, and you’ll soon find yourself labeled as a religious nut by the world and praised by fellow believers for your “amazing” commitment to Christ. The problem with this, however, is that we tend to suggest such people are doing more than is really necessary when God has called each and every one of us to do the exact same thing. It’s not that the truly devoted are earning extra credit for being good Christians; most of the time they are simply fulfilling the basic obligations of our faith.

“So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”

     -Luke 17:10

As humans we are members of a fallen race, but, as Christians are also members of a chosen and redeemed people (Romans 3:23-25). We’ve been given life instead of death, grace instead of wrath, and hope rather than despair. It seems apparent that the only One deserving of glory for our redemption is the Redeemer Himself, and yet so many times we act as if we should get at least some credit for who we are today. The Scriptures, on the other hand, are quick to remind us that whatever we do for the Lord is only our reasonable service in light of what He has done for us (Romans 12:1), and that we must all guard against becoming “wise in our own conceits” (v. 16). If serving the Lord wholeheartedly makes one a radical, then each of us should pursue a truly radical walk with God and not just pat others on the back for fulfilling the calling we’ve learned to ignore!

The reason we view certain Christians as radicals, at least most of the time, is because they have chosen to follow a path rarely traveled in our society. In reality, what we consider radical commitment is usually just the bare minimum God expects from His people, and anything else should be viewed as unacceptable. In a world where the average Christian spends less than 5 minutes each day in prayer, exceeding expectations just isn’t enough.*

*http://www.victorylifechurch.org/pdf/Prayer%20-%20Call%20to%20be%20above%20average.pdf