Is Your Faith Just a Slogan?

Just Do It." "I'm Lovin' It." "The Quicker Picker Upper."
I bet you know exactly which brands these slogans belong to. A great slogan is memorable, catchy, and instantly recognizable. But here's the thing about slogans: knowing them and living by them are two entirely different things. I'm sure not everyone with a State Farm policy truly believes their insurance agent is a good neighbor.
The same can be true of our mission as Christians: to help people find their way to God and find their way back to God. We can know this mission, we can say it out loud, but are we truly living it out?
We hope our friends, family, and coworkers will one day find their way back to God. But how do we move beyond just "hoping" and start "helping"? How do we live out this mission in our daily lives?
The Son of Man Came to Seek and to Save the Lost
Jesus is our ultimate example of what it means to be on a mission. He blessed every person and every place He encountered. One of the most powerful stories of Jesus on a mission is found in Luke 19.
Jesus is passing through Jericho when He encounters Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector. For the Jewish people, a tax collector was the worst of the worst—a traitor who worked for the Roman government and a crook who stole from his own people. No one was more hated than Zacchaeus.
But Zacchaeus, despite his wealth, felt like something was missing. He wanted to see Jesus, so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree. When Jesus passed by, He stopped, looked up, and said, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."
The crowd was disgusted. They couldn't believe Jesus would associate with such a sinner. But Zacchaeus, overwhelmed with joy that someone—especially Jesus—would be willing to enter his home, came down quickly. In that moment of grace and acceptance, a radical transformation occurred. Zacchaeus, once a greedy thief, promised to give half of his possessions to the poor and repay anyone he had cheated four times over.
Jesus then declared, "Today salvation has come to this house... For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
From Blessed to a Blessing
Jesus called Zacchaeus a "son of Abraham," a title the Pharisees used to claim their spiritual heritage. But Jesus was pointing to something deeper. To be a true son of Abraham isn't about bloodlines; it's about faith and action.
God told Abraham, "I will bless you... and you shall be a blessing." This has been God's plan from the very beginning. He blesses us, not so we can hoard those blessings, but so that we can go and be a blessing to the world.
We are all blessed with the promise of God's love and grace. We've been given a fresh start. We've found our way back to Him. But this blessing was never meant to be a bucket we hold onto. It's meant to be a river that flows out of us and touches the lives of others.
The Pharisees called themselves sons of Abraham, but it was just a slogan they didn't live by. They were disgusted by Zacchaeus, a lost soul in need of grace. They didn't understand that God blesses His people so that they can be a blessing to others.
So, let's ask ourselves today: What does it really mean to call ourselves a Christian? Is it a slogan we know, or is it a mission we are actively living out? Are we just hoping people find their way back to God, or are we actively helping them get there?