"Come As You Are"

It's not too uncommon to see a sign outside a building belonging to a religious organization or to hear someone say, “Come as you are!” to encourage people to join them. Usually what people mean is “Come as you are and we will accept you! No changes will be necessary and we believe Jesus will accept you!” The problem is not so much with the phrase “come as you are” as with this common usage.

Anyone Can Be Saved
When a person first hears the gospel, and then chooses to believe and obey, they can be saved. We see many men and women in the Bible who were among the most sinful people imaginable who converted to Christ, and their conversion was accepted as sincere and authentic by man and more importantly by God. Consider Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8. Here was a man full of pride, deceiving people, and committing acts forbidden by God. Yet he heard the gospel preached by Philip, believed the word of God, and was baptized. We can also look at the example of Paul who in I Timothy 1:15 describes himself of the chief of sinners. All sinners can choose to turn to Christ. Sinners who repent of their past misdeeds can be forgiven of their sins. Truly this is a great gift!

We Should Accept our Station
I Corinthians 7:17 teaches us that we should remain as we are in life. This is not teaching, however, that we should remain in sinful situations or continue living lives of sin. This is not to say that we should remain spiritually where we are when we first obey the gospel. If you consider the context, we are looking at social situation and standing. Slaves, free men, those living in Jewish society, and those living in gentile society should remain as their placed, not seeking to alter their situation. This is a teaching of acceptance and contentment, a teaching that all people can be useful in the work, and a teaching that our focus should not be on the things of this world, but rather spiritual things. We must not misuse this passage to show that remaining in sinful situations or continuing in sin is acceptable to God (Romans 6:15).

We Must Grow and Change
We must grow spiritually and change ourselves into the image of Christ (Hebrews 6:1-3, Colossians 3:10-11, Romans 12:2). This is not an immediate event, but one that takes a lifetime of work and effort in. We, as Christians, are not permitted to rest stagnant and unchanged. Rather, we must constantly work to be able to present ourselves as pleasing to the Lord (II Timothy 2:15).

We Must Obey
Part of this change is not simply to have belief or desire to serve God. We must obey the Lord's commands (II Thessalonians 3:14, Hebrews 5:9, I John 3:24, etc.). If we wish for Christ to accept us, we must be His obedient servants, submitting our will to His own. It is not a matter of simply believing and voicing our belief, but one of changing our lives to obedience to Him.

Yes, people come to Christ as they are: sinful, broken, and in need to salvation. But when people choose to follow Jesus, change must happen. They must put away sin from their lives. They must put on the new man and do works of righteousness. It is not a matter of expecting Jesus to accept us however we want to be. Instead, we must accept what Jesus expects us to be. So come as you are...and with the help of the Lord and your new brethren, change!