My Confession of Chain Letters

Alright. How many of you brothers and sisters in Christ have received a chain letter or email that said something along these lines?:

"If you aren't ashamed of Him, pass this along. Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father."

I'm sure all of you have seen an email or two like this over the years, and many have forwarded them all too eagerly to their christian friends to show that they are in fact 'unashamed' of Christ.

All to often however, these messages leave a false impression of the true meaning of the verse in question: Matthew 10:32-33 -
"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." (some translations use the words 'ashamed' instead of 'deny').

It's surprising, I know, but refusing to forward a chain letter to 10 (50, or sometimes 100) people has very little bearing on the state of your confession of Christ. When Matthew speaks of those who "deny" Christ, or as some say "are ashamed of" Christ, he is not speaking of irritating chain leters - nor is he speaking of one time events. Peter himself denied Christ. In fact, Peter did it 3 times in one day! (Matthew 26:69-75). What Matthew is explaining in the tenth chapter, is an entire lifelong resistance to Christ. Therefore, a single act of denial does not make one unworthy of being a disciple (although it is a sin), but a refusal to confess Christ at all, eliminates one from being a true follower of Jesus Christ.

If you are, 'truly' ashamed of Christ, throw yourself at the feet of Christ and ask for forgiveness. Pray that the Spirit may indwell you and enable you to stand and confess the true Light of the World to all the nations.

If you are a born-again child of God, unashamed of the blessed work of salvation that Christ has wrought in you - then don't worry about forgetting to forward that next chain letter. I promise you that God knows your heart, and that is a louder confession that any chain letter can utter.