Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked... - Revelation 3:17

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked... - Revelation 3:17 

We are living in an age that dislikes precision and definitions. It is an age that is anti-theological, anti-doctrinal and which dislikes propositions and exact knowledge. It is a lazy age in every respect, a sentimental, sloppy age, an age that wants entertainment and dislikes effort. This tendency shows itself in many ways which are generally very plausible. 

One way is to say that Christianity is something that is so wonderful that it cannot be defined, that it baffles analysis or any attempt to state it in propositions. It cannot be done, they say. You experience it marvelous and wonderful! But if you try to analyze it, then you destroy it, there is nothing left.

Another way is this: that Christianity is only a matter of one's spirit. What makes us Christians is our spirit, and if we have an appropriate spirit, then we are Christians. Christianity is an attitude, a view of life, a general statement concerning our personality and our being. There was a slogan not so long ago which said, "Christianity is caught, not taught." You catch the spirit. You feel it in the meeting and you get it. But what is it? Well, you do not know, but that does not matter. You have got it! That is the great thing and you feel much happier and much better than you did before.

But the thing that has given me the greatest pleasure and encouragement of all the things I have ever been told that people say about my ministry was said by a lady, who remonstrated, "This man preaches to us as if we were sinners!" 

Quite so. Church people often feel, "We must not be searched or examined, we are all right. Of course, denounce those sinners who are outside the church or those liberals, but we are the people who are orthodox! We do not need that, we need instruction. We want these general lectures, these addresses, these character studies. How interesting, how nice! But we must not be disturbed. There is nothing wrong with us." 

And so such people, as you see everywhere in the Bible and in the history of the church, have always disliked anything that searches them, makes them feel uncomfortable, or probes them.

- D. M. Lloyd-Jones