The Problem of Fence-Sitting

Elijah challenged the people: “How long are you going to sit on the fence? If God is the real God, follow him; if it’s Baal, follow him. Make up your minds!” Nobody said a word; nobody made a move. I Kings 18:21 (The Message, MSG)

Elijah challenged the people to decide who they were going to follow; God or Baal. We need to decide the same thing. We must decide whether we are going to live for God, live for the world, or sit on the fence. And when we sit on the fence, we are actually choosing not to follow God. When we think of a fence-sitter, we think of wishy-washy people wavering between two opinions and not sold out to anything.

So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Revelation 3:16 (NKJV)

As believers, it can be easy to become fence-sitters if we are not careful. In choosing small things that align with the world, we gradually lose ground and drift further and further from the Lord. And some of the things we choose are not so small… they can actually become large obstacles to living wholeheartedly for God. God is looking for those of us who will follow hard after Him. He wants us to be passionate about Him. He doesn’t want us to be sort of in and sort of out. He wants us totally and completely. We need to be continually checking our spiritual temperature to make sure we aren’t growing cool towards Him.

One thing that shows our spiritual condition is what we are willing to lay down for God. So many of us want to justify why we do what we do instead of sacrificing all to follow Jesus. For example, there is the question about consuming alcohol. Some people say that we can drink it based on the scripture that Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake. Some people say that it’s okay because Jesus drank wine. Others say we cannot drink alcohol because the Word says that drunkards will never inherit the kingdom of God. Others bring out that the wine in the Bible was unfermented, similar to what we would call grape juice today. Personally, my studies have shown me that the wine in the Bible was indeed unfermented and that I should not drink alcohol.

As I type this, I know there are going to be people out there that will strongly disagree and would fight tooth and nail to be able to drink their Budweiser or Chardonnay. And my point is not whether we should drink it or not. My real point is: what are we willing to give up for God? For the sake of argument, let’s say I’m right, and alcoholic beverages are forbidden. That means that giving them up is the right thing to do to live for God. By continuing to drink, I would not be following the Lord’s will for my life. But what if I’m wrong, and I gave up alcohol for no reason? What did I lose? Not much- a little bit of temporary pleasure. What I’m getting at is this- even if we aren’t sure about something, we should love God more than anything we think we may have to give up.

Do we love the Lord more than wine or beer or whiskey? Do we love God more than the music on the radio that glorifies sex, violence, depression, and all sorts of negative topics? Do we love God more than the R-rated movies we go to see? Do we love God more than that second helping of pizza or chocolate cake? Do we love God more than Halloween, Harry Potter, and Twilight? Do we love God more than sex with a boyfriend or girlfriend? What are we willing to give up for the Lord? The Bible is clear about many things that we are to stay away from. But, even if we aren’t sure whether something is wrong or not, we should still be willing to give it up for our Lord and Savior- just in case. If we aren’t willing to, then we obviously have a greater love for that thing than we do for God.

Honestly, this is not intended to be a debate about alcohol, movies, music or anything like that. It is intended to prompt all of us-you and me- to check our commitment level. If we truly love Jesus, then nothing else will even come close to being as important to us as following Him and doing His will. Let’s get as far from the fence as we can so we don’t run the risk of sitting on it. I promise you, anything we give up for Christ pales in comparison to the joy of being with Him.