“If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas”, was a favorite saying of Monday Night Football announcer Don Meredith. When Howard Cosell would blather on about “if” this and “if” that we could count on Don to puncture Cosell’s balloon with his favorite phrase. One of the problems with football today (besides its sheer brutality) is too many games require too many announcers who use too many meaningless clichés. When they start the “what if” blather I wish ol’ Don would pop up and puncture their balloon.

While it may get monotonous in football there are genuine reasons and appropriate times for “if” statements. It is a simple word used to introduce the idea of a conditional situation. Typically it is used in the form of an “if this then that” sentence. Sometimes it relates to somewhat connected situations such as “If I get in late, then don’t wait up.” They’re only connected if you want them to be. Sometimes it relates to fundamentally connected situations that absolutely depend on one another such as “If you won’t take me, then I can’t go.”

Those “if this then that” situations are insignificant compared to the conditional nature of human salvation. When Solomon built the temple God reminded him that if Solomon continued walking in His law God would keep His promise. “(I)f you will walk in My statutes and execute My ordinances and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will carry out My word with you which I spoke to David your father. I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will not forsake My people Israel.”(1 Kings 6:12-13). Eventually Solomon and the nation failed and God punished them in captivity.

Today God offers salvation as a gift (Ephesians 2:8) to those who will come to Him in obedient faith. The believer becomes an Israelite by spiritual birth and God will dwell with him (or her). However, receiving and holding on to the gift are still conditioned on faith. It is a required response on our part. In Ephesians 2:8 salvation is the gift and faith is the condition. In Hebrews 11:6 God said that without faith “it’s impossible to please Him” and that “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

If we refuse to meet God’s conditions and diligently seek Him by faith then we’re treating God Himself with the irreverence of a Don Meredith saying. Dwelling with God depends on your response. The choice is yours. Will you do what God says and seek Him diligently by faith or treat the gift He has offered like a Dandy Don joke?