Donald Phlegar, missionary to Thailand, shared a story that was circulating among the Thai people about a man who had a lion. The lion had a habit of eating people. His owner told him it would be all right for him to eat one or two people a day, but the lion must not eat any Christians. One day the lion ate a man except for a small area around his lips. When the lion’s owner saw what the lion had done he asked for an explanation. The lion replied, ‘You told me I could eat anyone except a Christian. Well, this man was a Christian in his mouth only!’”
There have always been people who are Christians in their mouth only. For example, Paul wrote of the people of Crete, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Titus 1:16).
The greatest scandal of Christianity today is the low grade of Christian living. The temple of truth will not be damaged half as much by woodpeckers on the outside as by termites on the inside.
The watchword for every Christian today needs to be “Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19). A religion of the mouth-only is not acceptable to God. Jesus made this clear when he said, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).