9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) – Jonah 1:9-10
The great D.C. Talk song What If I Stumble? opens with these words, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
How unbelievable was Jonah’s statement to the crew of sailors? On one hand Jonah is confident. “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord. Not your fake Gods. My God is the real God. You know the one who made the land and the sea.” You can sense the arrogance in Jonah’s voice. Jonah is confident in his identity as a Hebrew. Jonah is confident in the existence of God. Yet, remember why Jonah was even there to begin with. Jonah was on the ship because he was running from God. Because he did not trust God. So Jonah’s claim to “worship” the Lord is only half true.
It is possible for the world to see through our half worship. “What have you done?” the crew asked. Even an unbeliever who knows some truth about God can rightly rebuke a Christian who is resisting God. This the most logical question in the world, even for an unbeliever to ask a believer.
If you announced your identity as a Christian who worships the true God, what would your acquaintances and friends say? Would they think anything of it? Would you be verified by your actions? Or would they say, “what have you done?”