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In a devotional this week, I went through several chapters in Genesis, and as I read through Genesis 3, it always strikes me to see how Adam and Eve — but specifically Adam — made one of the biggest mistakes that they could. Adam chose to be passive when he was supposed to take action. We all know the story: in the midst of the garden, Satan tempted Eve to eat of the fruit, and Adam, as the husband — the one who was responsible to lead his wife — stood by and let the fall of man come upon the world.

Now all of us, if we’re being honest, probably “dog” on Adam pretty heavily for this, right? “How could he do something so foolish? How could he mess up like that? I can’t believe he wasn’t intentional in stepping in and leading his wife.” And yet, even as we’re quick to blame and throw shade on him for this sin of passiveness, how often do we, as Christians today, wrongfully fall into this sin of passiveness when God has called us to action?

Passive in our relationship with God:

As time goes on, we begin to become passive in our relationship with God. Our time in Scripture and prayer becomes habitual and maybe even fades into obscurity over time as we get preoccupied with more responsibilities and “things” in life. We don’t become rebellious and angry with God; we simply become passive. We lose sight of the importance of remaining engaged and intentional with our time with the Lord. Daily. Intentional Bible study becomes just reading another chapter. Daily prayer becomes weekly prayer, then biweekly prayer, and so on we could go.

Passive in our relationship with Christ’s church:

Another way we, as Christians today, can “become” Adam is passivity within our local church. Church goes from being a vital part of our spiritual growth and the place we go to serve Christ and His church, to becoming “the thing we do on Sundays.” We go through the motions of saying hi to so-and-so, then we sing some songs, then a guy — typically the bald one — comes up to preach for about 40 minutes, then we go to a connection group. We begin to lose our intentionality that we are to have in the local church to practice the “one anothers” and serve one another as Christ served us. Again, we don’t fall into bitterness where we have some deeply rooted disdain for Christ’s church. We don’t “dislike” serving in Christ’s church; rather, over time, we become comfortable, and we simply become passive.

So what do we do about it? We’re all prone to be passive if we’re not on guard, so when passivity comes creeping around the corner, do we just let it creep in? I think we know the obvious answer is no.

There are so many Scriptures that show the importance of being proactive people of faith instead of just coasting through our Christian walk. James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” These Scriptures, among many others, call us as believers not to be passive in our walk with Jesus but to be proactive and alert in our faith.

Each one of us who claims to follow Jesus has a responsibility to intentionally invest in our time with the Lord and our time in His church. Passivity in these areas of our lives is a sin, and indulging in it will only hurt us and anyone God has put in our lives to lead.

As Christians today, let’s not allow passivity to take over our lives. In our relationship with God, within our church families, and within our personal families, let’s be followers of Jesus who seek proactivity in these relationships rather than passiveness. Let’s learn from Adam’s mistake, and let’s be people who are passive about passivity.

Serving Together,

Bro. Luke