There are a lot of people going to church today who seem to not even remotely reflect the values once championed by the church. We all know the culture has slipped and is slipping further into post-modernism, where absolutes do not exist. Maybe that is the "middle road," where you can talk one thing and live another.

Regardless of how far the culture slips and the church with it, unchurched people retain a high view of God, resulting in the idea that most church attendees are hypocrites.

The Bible does not reference a middle-road life. In Matthew 7:13-14, we read, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

The Apostle Paul speaks of two routes, or ways of life: "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires" (Romans 8:5). It's all about choices. We can choose to walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit of God as revealed in the Word of God, or we can simply default to natural inclinations, which are the way of the flesh with all its appetites.

The "middle road" that some people seem to be walking might be a situation where we have good intentions, but no follow-through. We work hard to know the narrow road; we study it, we talk about it, we fully intend to do it, but when crunch time comes, we deviate and walk the broad road, justifying ourselves because we do know, and therefore believe that we should be credited for our knowledge.

God is neither absent nor inactive in all of this. He has put a God-consciousness in the heart of every person. Ecclesiastes 3:11 states, "He [God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men." People have an expectation of God that they do not find being lived out in the life of the average professing Christian, but that does not seem to dim their search.

God is relentlessly drawing people to Himself. One must wonder how much more effective God's work would be if His people reflected Him better.

This is not a new problem, or one only evident in our generation. The first-century church struggled with the same thing. We must seek to be part of the solution rather than further aggravate the problem.

We must follow Paul's instructions in Romans 8, and always seek to walk or live in the Spirit rather than living according to our sinful nature. It's one or the other. God has not established a middle road.