I am glad to say that the age-old game of finding the fervency factor is fading throughout the faith. It is, however, still played by a few. Those who cling to it may want to read this closely in order really to determine how to rate their own fervency. The point of this little game is simple, and the game can be played any time you enter a room full of other Christians.
To begin the game, move to some vantage point where you can survey a whole room of believers at once. This may be the silvery icon of the coffee urn in pastors’ meetings, while in lay meetings the best place may be the book table or the tract rack. Once you achieve this viewing position, begin at once to rate everybody’s fervency for Christ, instantly assigning scores on a scale of one to seven—seven, of course, being the number of perfection. Last of all, rate yourself.
To play the game best, you must not shrink from making definite conclusions based on intuition, snap judgments, and bold conjecture. A good rule of thumb is that it takes about 60 seconds per Christian to do the rating. In a gathering of 10, the skillful player can locate his own fervency in 10 minutes; a gathering of 20 will require 20 minutes; a gathering of 50 takes nearly an hour.
Here are the categories of comparative fervency.
First, dress. Remember, great believers always wear gray. The more pastels that surface in a person’s dress, the more you may distrust their gaudy and peacock allegiance to Christ. Can you imagine Martin Luther at Worms in paisleys and windowpane plaids? Remember that Jesus always wore a simple, homespun, off-white broadcloth. Jewelry is an automatic disclaimer. For men it is always a mark of inward vanity. Never trust a man in a gold neck chain or a diamond ring, even if you see a KJV New Testament in his gaudy vest pocket.
Second, mannerisms and body language. Overfriendliness is a sure mark of libertinism. Here you must trust your first impressions and intuition. Ask yourself in a most objective way, “Does the smile look sincere? Is it really the way Christ would have smiled by Galilee? Does the sparkle in the eye appear at all flirtatious?” Here you must ask yourself if the dress matches the mannerisms; a happy person dressed in gray may suggest inward hypocrisy. On the other hand, a gray countenance dressed in bright apparel may suggest a hungering after carnal lifestyles.
Third, the most blatant indication of fervency or the lack of it is, of course, speech. Fervency is as fervency talks. Does the brother in question say, “Praise the Lord!” and speak of the “Word o’God,” or does he just talk normally, refusing to reflect the “joys of Jesus”? It has been my experience that a real “blood-bought believer” will be “unashamed of the gospel” and have a “real heart for Jesus.” Mark it down, there is no other way to be on “fire for God,” and the “man who can’t bless it should confess it.”
Remember, the categories are dress, mannerisms, and speech, and to rate yourself on the fervency scale you must compare everyone to your own devoted self. You will probably always be able to place fairly high in the ratings as long as you remember one thing; if other people tried harder, they really could be a little more like Jesus and you.
Author Calvin Miller is pastor of the Westside Baptist Church in Omaha, Nebraska.
