Faithless vs Unfaithful

Jeremiah 3:6-11

^"6 During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. ⁷ I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. ⁸ I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. ⁹ Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. ¹⁰ In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD.

¹¹ The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah."(NIV)

This is a good lesson for us to think about. What is the difference between Faithless and Unfaithful?
Faithless in this context means that there is thought of being faithful, Israel completely turned away from God. Israel ran away from God and displayed it proudly.
On the other hand Unfaithful means obeying the law but secretly running away. Judah still held services in the Temple, but worshipped other gods on the side.

In Revelation 3:15-16 it says, "¹⁵I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."(NIV)

There are many times that I have caught myself reading the Bible just to say "oh ya, I read the Bible today..." or going to church to talk with my friends. That is the wrong attitude to bring to God. I am just doing these things for show, not out of a desire to please God. Thankfully I catch myself and then focus on God more, or someone else will mention it to me.

In a recent chain letter I got (meaning I can't vouch for its accuracy...) it mentioned a statistic that 85% of America claimed they were Christian. But how many of those people even go to church? Not many I would say. Then take it another level down, how many people who go to church also read their Bible and aren't there to simply check the box? And again, another level, how many people who read their Bible are applying it to their lives?

This is an example of how "lukewarm" America is today, we say we are christians, but we don't do anything about it. This is the same thing Judah was doing in 600 BC, worshiping in the temple just to "obey the law" then afterwards they go out to the street corner and worship Baal or Molech, or some other god made of stone.