Second hand faith is that kind of faith which seems very appealing on the surface because we see others whom we highly esteem believing and practicing it. We accept it because we value the friendship or the love of the one presenting it. In fact, many generations of our family may have handed down this faith and we feel obligated to believe and practice the same. However, there is something about this “bargain” faith that turns it into a real lemon.
The Hebrew writer tells us that the faith pleasing to God must be personal (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus once chastened a select group of piously religious Jews because they transgressed the commandment of God by their traditions (Matthew 15:3). Their religion had become nothing more than a hypocritical hand-me-down religion that interfered with pure service to Jehovah. Rebuking them, the Lord made reference to Isaiah 29:13: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).
It may very well be that we have biblical faith (Gal. 5:6; James 2:24), but if our heart is not obedient to it, it is vain (Romans 6:17; Matthew 15:9; James 1:26). And, if we have not examined ourselves to determine whether we are truly serving God with our whole self, we are merely parroting the beliefs of another. This is why the inspired writer Paul encourages us to do the following:
1) “Examine yourselves, as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5);
2) “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12);
3) “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
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