The Bible repeatedly warns against double-mindedness. This seemingly harmless state of mind is often understood and its dangers underestimated. And what's bad about this is that so many Christians have it.
But what's so bad about being double-minded anyway? What makes it so bad and what are its effects anyway? Let's start with just one:
You can't follow God if you're a double-minded person.
Whoa!
Double-mindedness is defined as "having different minds at different times." People who are double-minded can't make up their mind. They're unsettled, easily waver between opinions and principles, are unstable, and are undetermined.
God has often confronted people who are double-minded to make up their minds. He does this through His people who are wholly sold out to Him. We may not notice such Biblical accounts as an attack on our double-mindedness, but they are God's attempts to shake us to make the right decisions and stick to them.
Dangers or double-mindedness
To help you see just how dangerous it is, here are some accounts in the Bible:
God and Money - Matthew 6:24
In Matthew 6:24 the Lord Jesus Himself warns us against wavering between two masters: God and money. He says we can't serve both:
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Unless we make up our minds to fully serve the Lord, money, prosperity and riches will always be tempting to us. Unless we choose to serve God and make our money serve Him too, there will always be a competition between God and riches in our hearts.
God and false gods - 1 Kings 18:21
In 1 Kings 18 we find the famous showdown between the man of God Elijah and the 450 prophets (!) of the false god Baal. Elijah challenged these prophets and told them to serve the living God:
"And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word."
Unless we choose to believe and follow the one true God and adhere to His word, we will always be carried away by strange beliefs and ungodly teachings, even humanistic philosophies. We can't be driven by public opinion or numbers; we need to follow God even if we're the only ones who do!
God and former beliefs and ways of life He destroyed - Joshua 24:14-15
Joshua, after successfully leading Israel into the Promised Land and reminding them of all that God had done, from rescuing them from Egypt to defeating all their enemies to providing them all good things, challenged the people to choose between God and the gods of the people He defeated:
"Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
God saved us in Christ alright, but unless we're determined to deny ourselves and follow Him we will easily slide back to our old ways of living complete with our sinfulness and ungodliness. We need to make up our mind and pursue the Lord who has rescued us from sin and our own wrongdoing that leads us to hell.
