Cut Flower Christianity

 I forget the last time I bought a bouquet of flowers for my wife. They were beautiful. We enjoy them, but they don't last long in our house. We placed them in a vase with water and enjoyed them for a season until they began to droop. A day or two later they lost their beautiful color and fragrance and had to be thrown out. Cut flowers can only hold their beauty and fragrance for a few days because they have been cut off from the roots that sustains them.

We often hear about cut flower Christians. These are people who have been cut off from the roots of their faith. They appear to live for Christ for a time, but because they have no roots they soon begin to dry up and lose the beauty of their faith. Such people never mature as Christians but remain baby Christians throughout their entire lives. They contribute little to the Kingdom of God, and, in fact, may often be a hindrance. These are the ones who create the most problems within the church.

Unfortunately, we can go further and talk about cut flower churches. These churches have had the roots removed as they have abandoned the clear teachings of Scripture. On the surface, they appear to be churches. In their worship services they sing hymns, they employ seminary-trained ministers, they have prayers and may even perform baptisms and partake of the Lord's Supper, but there is a deadness in all they do. They go through the motions, but there is no life in what they do. They long ago abandoned the faith and Ichabod (the glory of God has departed) is written above their door.

Unless an individual or church remains rooted in the Word of God, they become a cut-flower Christian unable to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. Jesus makes it clear in John 15: 4-5, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless  you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

It does not get much more clear than that. Unless an individual believer remains rooted in Christ, he or she will accomplish little for the Kingdom of God. The same is true of churches. Cut flowers look good for a time, but they soon will dry up and die. The same is true for Christians and churches.