Today's Devotional

July 15, 2004

Subject:  Placebo Christians

Matthew 17:15 - 16  Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.  And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.

Matthew 17:18 - "And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour."

Today when they are testing drugs, they will often use a control group, which they will divide into two separate groups.  One will receive a placebo, a medication prescribed more for the mental relief of the patient than for its actual effect on a disorder, and the other group will receive the real drug.

Many of our churches today are creating "placebo Christians."  They get lots of mental relief, but the treatment has no effect on the disorder.  It's like the Motrin drug that we so often receive in the Marine Corps for every little ache and pain.  It is designed to mask the pain, but it doesn't fix the problem.  

In the scenario that the disciples find themselves in Matthew 17, they were without the "drug" necessary for the cure, so the boy remained in his disordered state.  However, Jesus had the cure and He was the cure, so when Jesus cured the boy, He had received the real thing, no placebo.  

If we go to church only to get the emotional high.  If we go to church just to "feel like" we've been to church.  Or if we go to church just to get help on this "one thing" that is causing us problems, then we are undoubtedly, "placebo Christians."  Once we have some mental relief, we will think it's all better, but ultimately we will find that our drug of choice did not provide the cure, but rather it simply masked the pain.  So we continue in our disordered state in search of the next placebo.  This is often disguised as Christians church-hopping.  

So today, break the placebo cycle and go for the "real" drug of choice, because once you're cured with this drug, you're really cured. 

Carlen