“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2 Corinthians 13: 5 KJV).
Sports are a multimillion-dollar business. There are risks involved in playing sports, and many are willing to take those risks to hopefully experience that short-lived rush called the “thrill of victory”.
But of all the dangerous games being played, there is one with a far greater risk than them all. This worldwide game has far more participants than any other, but is most popular in America.
This game of which I speak is called the areligious game or, more often, playing church. To play this game, you get your name on the church roll under the impression that church membership equals salvation. You assume this membership is synonymous with the Lamb’s book of life, but it isn’t. Of course, this idea defies God’s Word that says we must be born again in order to actually be saved and bear fruit in accordance to our relationship with Christ.
We’re all sinners born into a crime family, but many, instead of actually getting saved, will toy with their soul and play with their eternal destiny until the whistle or trumpet blows and it’s too late to be saved.
Like most sports, the areligious games are held on Sunday. Like the players of other games, we suit up and play on Sunday then return to our true selves the rest of the week. It’s actually a game of pretentious acting. The reason there is so much show business in the church is that so many lost people are attempting to act like Christians.
But God doesn’t play games; only the devil does, and he will play us to the very end. Satan tells us that playing church and having religion is all we need to escape Hell and gain Heaven. And the devil’s game is to keep us believing this lie until it’s too late, and we slip off of a comfortably padded church pew into the eternal flames of Hell.
The areligious game is the most dangerous because once you’re called out of the game, you must face the awful reality of the penalty for not being real with yourself and God (Rev. 20:11-15).
