Imagine a ship sinks and all the passengers are drowning in the icy ocean.
A lifeboat is sent out.
Those on the lifeboat rescue as many people as possible. They don’t stop, they keep going, they don’t mind the cold, discomfort, distress and hardship because they are committed to seeing people rescued. They are willing to give their all to make it happen.
Imagine the people on the life boat stopped being concerned for those drowning in the sea.
Instead, they argue over who sits where; they complain about their food rations getting rather soggy; they grumble that there are now too many people and it’s getting uncomfortable. On top of that, its getting a bit awkward because there are too many people on the lifeboat that they don’t know. The warm, fuzzy feeling they had at the start is disappearing.
So they take a vote to leave the other drowning people and rather become a pleasure cruiser. They decide on weekly entertainment, softer seats, leisurely fellowship at the pool, and no hardship.
What a travesty.
JC Ryle wrote many years ago:
The disciples were to behave like men who had no time to waste on the empty compliments and conventional courtesies of the world… They teach us that ministers and teachers of the gospel should beware of allowing the world to eat up their time and thoughts and to hinder them in their spiritual work. They teach us that care about money, and excessive attention to what are called “the courtesies of life,” are mighty snares in the way of Christ’s laborers, and snares into which they must take heed lest they fall… Let us consider these things…Let us strive to show the people of the world that we have no time for their mode of living. Let us show them that we find life too precious to be spent in perpetual feasting, leisure, and pleasure, as if there were no death, or judgment, or life to come.