Lazy Christians?

Monday, 2nd March 2026

Two of the most common criticisms that has been levied upon my church NewCre are as follows:

1) Lawlessness - that because of God's grace, we have now been given the "license" to sin

2) Laziness - that because of Jesus' finished work, we as believers can just rest and not do anything

I will address #1 in a future post :-)

But for today, let's talk about being a "lazy" Christian.

I recall conversations I had with members of other churches, and they would tell me about the many "discipleship" programs that they have, and how NewCre does not seem to have anything similar. They get the impression that because we place so much emphasis on how complete Jesus' work is that we can just laze around and do nothing.  We have been accused of "easy-believism".

Now, let's look at the Hebrew word for "disciple". Here is the result of a Google AI search:

talmid (singular תַּלְמִיד) or talmidim (plural תַּלְמִידִים), which literally translates to "apprentice" or "student". It signifies a, devoted learner who follows a rabbi to learn their teachings, mimic their actions, and become like them. 

Jesus Himself had 12 disciples, and they had initially followed him because He was seen by them as their good Jewish Rabbi who would one day be the Messiah promised in the Scriptures.  Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve.

Now hold that thought.

John the Baptist was also held out as a Rabbi-teacher with disciple-students of his own.  It is recorded in Mt 9:14 that John's disciples questioned Jesus as to why they had to fast, yet Jesus' disciples did not need to.

Now let's look at the Hebrew word for son / daughter. Google AI search returns the following: 

son is Ben (בן), daughter is Bat (בת). 

In the bible, we see names such as Benjamin (son of my right hand) and Bathsheba (daughter of the oath).  Yup, contrary to popular belief, Bathsheba was not named such because she took a bath in front of King David :P

While we see the word "disciple" appear frequently in the gospels and in Acts, not a single time does the word appear in the Pauline, Petrine and Johannine epistles.  They instead use words like sons, daughters, beloved, and saints.  The apostles(!) had progressively received revelation of their identity as "heirs" rather than as "students".

I do admit that there are currently pew-warmers among the 50,000 who attend NewCre.  But there are also thousands upon thousands of server-volunteers who on regular basis reach out to foreign workers, prisoners on death row, people with special needs and have been inflicted with "incurable" diseases like Parkinson's etc etc.

Having said that, I do miss the time when NewCre had midweek bible study, and I would be one of the students.  I first became aware of this when a candidate for a managerial position told me when I was interviewing him that he "did not mind working late except on Thursdays because he wanted to attend bible study".

And just last Saturday, Rev Reuben Ng also mentioned about someone who worked in a large local bank being told by her boss, "Aren't you supposed to be going for bible study?" when she happened to be working slightly later one evening. That woman so excelled at her work that her boss took note and "gave in" to her request of not having to work late on Fridays. (It was the "vegetables and water" line that she held).

In conclusion, would you rather identify yourself as a "disciple" of Jesus like what Judas was? Or would you rather identify yourself as a "son/daughter" of God, and thus a co-heir of Jesus.  You know my answer.