And the word of the day is “mollycoddle.” At least it was last Thursday. It means to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attention.
If I were to use this in a sentence, I might say, “In the last century, the Church in America has stopped teaching and modeling the precious disciplines of obedience, self-discipline, patience, personal holiness, cross carrying, and discipleship and instead mollycoddles her members.”
Unfortunately, we have become a generation of Christians devoted to our own pursuits and enamored with our own pleasures. In an effort to “keep” attendees, those attitudes have infiltrated our churches. We have done everything we can to make Christianity entertaining and comfortable – and as a result have cheapened the grace that amazed our forefathers and brought them to their knees trembling in reverent worship.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theological martyred by Hitler, wrote a book called “The Cost of Discipleship.” In it he warned of something he labeled “cheap grace.” He wrote, “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.”
Cheap grace is defined as forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, and communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.
May we never settle for cheap grace. May our churches cease mollycoddling attendees and begin to teach and model discipleship … obedient, holy, cross-carrying discipleship.
