by Richard Shin

I have no idea who came up with the term “functional atheism.” It’s a catchy phrase: those who claim to be theistic—Christian—function like an atheist, one who does not believe in the existence of God. Atheism can take on many forms, but at the center of it, it’s a rejection of the God of creation. Even with the insurmountable evidence around him, the atheist chooses to ignore such evidence and live his life without acknowledging his Creator. And the one who claims to be Christian functions like an atheist when he lives his life saying he believes in his Lord and Savior, yet his life does not show for it. He’s the type that Jesus will reject at the end of days, like it says in Matthew 7:21-23.

The idea itself is certainly not new: Paul himself addresses Timothy’s church in Ephesus that “if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8). He categorically dismisses the idea that the head of a household who does not provide the physical means for his family to live, can call himself a Christian. That “Christian” is a functional atheist. There are, of course, rare exceptions that would preclude one from falling in this category, but the guideline generally applies to every Christian man. Another example can be derived from 1 Thess. 4:3-5. Paul here exhorts the Thessalonians to keep their bodies pure from sexual immorality. In doing so, he likens people who do not control their own bodies to the Gentiles who don’t know God, thereby giving in to the passion of lust. The “Christian” who does not learn to control his own body is a functional atheist.

Now let’s switch gears and talk about time for a bit. Without getting too philosophical about it, time is a creation of God. Genesis 1:1 says that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” which means that God is transcendent, outside the bounds of this physical universe including the passage of time. Second Peter 3:8 also shares that God sees time differently than we do; whereas for us, one day is one day, not a thousand years. Psalm 90:4 is another example. I don’t understand how it all works, but I’m not one to question what seems absolutely clear in the Bible: God is the creator of time, and He is not bound by it like we are.

So, how do we as Christians understand time? In all things, our perspective changes as we grow in our understanding of God’s Word. How we view time is the same. First of all, we begin with the fact that we are God’s creation. He created us in His image. But due to our sinful nature, we became a dead people, both physical and spiritual. God sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for us—the elect—and give us life. And because God purchased our life through His blood, we no longer live for ourselves, but for God (which is what we should have been doing in the first place). So the time we now spend isn’t solely for ourselves, but primarily for God. First Corinthians 10:31 is clear in that we must glorify God even in the mundane, everyday things, such as eating (although if you ask me, eating is oftentimes quite exhilarating). The glorification of God is to be our primary focus. The Paul who wrote Ephesians 2:8-9 also wrote verse 10: “by grace [we] have been saved through faith… are his workmanship… created for good works.”

And this is where the gap between time and functional atheism is bridged. Simply put: if we don’t spend our time to glorify God, we are functional atheists. This means that the way in which we spend our time says a lot about our position before God. Needless to say, many Christians live like functional atheists; we don’t spend our time with an understanding that our time is not our own. Every waking moment of our lives—from birth to death—is an expression of God’s holy mercy because of His holding back wrath from us the sinners (We are still alive, yes? We know unbelievers still alive, yes?). And to some, He grants pardon and a growing desire to glorify His good name. And yet we who are called to be his ambassadors muck it up by spending that time for ourselves alone. We, in effect, become functional atheists.

I don’t mean to say that how we spend our time has a one-to-one correlation with how much we are glorifying God. Despite our best efforts, many of us sleep and work for a half to two-thirds of our time. Sleep is a necessary component to our daily living, and, well, we read what Paul said above about work. However, there is a point in which either of these activities can become idols. The time spent doing certain activities can be an indicator of where our hearts are. For instance, for me, I can function a full day with around seven hours of sleep. The day I start sleeping ten hours regularly is the day I should be called a sluggard (Prov. 6:9; 13:4) and find myself needing a good kick in the behind.

Nor am I saying that the activity in itself is always clear-cut as well. However, there are certainly some that are more profitable for us than others (1 Cor. 6:12). At the end of the day, we are accountable to God for how we spend our time. We will account for the works in which we performed for (or against) God before the Judgment Seat of Christ. And my concern in this article is for those whom God will not see any evidence of saving faith because they do not consider time to be a gift from God to be used for Him. It will show at the end of days whether their time was spent only for themselves or for God.

Our understanding of who we are as Christians should motivate us to spend our time wisely. We were created for the purpose of glorifying Him, and even though we are sinful and have fleshly desires, that mandate has not changed: we as redeemed people are to still glorify God. In fact, our entire bodies are to be living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). Yet, too many of us live functionally atheistic lives by spending time doing activities that have no redeeming value or omitting those that do.

How do you spend your time? When you look at what you do, can you confidently say to yourself and to God that you spent it seeking to glorify Him? If not, this is a good opportunity to take a step back and reassess your priorities.