Fake Stamps

THE POSTAGE STAMP LOOKS LIKE a postage stamp is supposed to look: white, perforated edges, and part of a circular cancellation mark in the corner. It also has the country and postage clearly printed, though its depiction of the pirate Blackbeard during an attack might be more dramatic than most philatelic subjects. But it’s not a postage stamp, not really, because its country of origin is Sealand—a metal platform about the size of a tennis court, off the English coast. Sealand is one of the quirky, strangely numerous states known as “micronations,” or self-proclaimed polities with no legal recognition. Some of them, to simulate legitimacy or at least make a little money, have issued their own flags, passports, coins, and yes, postage stamps. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/micronation-stamps

Put one of these stamps on your letter, and it will get returned. But we are not primarily concerned about letters and stamps. We are concerned with Christians who live out their faith. The warning in this illustration is that there are some who seem to be “micro-“ Christians; “self-proclaimed” Christians; lacking “legal recognition.” 

The rule is, if you have to put an adjective in front of it, then it is probably not real. There is no such thing as a “micro-“ Christian; nor a “self-proclaimed” Christian. The “legal authority” in this case refers to the only way one becomes a Christian at all: through justification by faith, not of works, by which we are declared righteous by God and accepted into His presence. Without that legal standing, accomplished by Christ, one is not a Christian.

Paul writes to Timothy, and warns him to beware of those who have an appearance of godliness, but in practice, they deny it’s power. They are like fake stamps, treasured by some, but worthless before God. They are not merely empty place-holders, pew-sitters who are unable to contribute to the health of the Body (congregation). They are actually detrimental, in that the Spirit of God is not active within them, and therefore all that they have to offer is resourced from their own selves, or, as the Bible says, from their flesh.

Christians who live out their faith do so by living faithfully according to the Gospel; according to Christ’s death and resurrection; living dead to sin and alive to God. That faithfulness is made possible not by pretending or play-acting, but through the working of the Spirit of God within them, who is forming the character of Christ in their lives. They do not merely look like Christians. They are Christians.