There are kids who love football and will never quit no matter how tough the practice or how tough the coaches are at demanding they work harder.
There are kids who like football and start out well, but eventually drop out and quit.
Then there are kids who pretend to be football players. Our coach used to tell us this story every year at the beginning of the season. The coaches noticed that one player never seemed to get through the Oklahoma drill very much or at all during practice. So the next time they ran the tackling drill they watched this particular kid to see what he was doing. The player was allowing other guys to go ahead of him in the drill and staying towards the back of the line. He also was counting kids in the other line to make sure when he went through the drill that he was against a guy who was younger and smaller than himself.
Just like Christians in Jesus day and even today, some Christians will never give up and quit. Ten of the Apostles died grisly deaths of beatings, crucifixions, beheadings etc. People today, around the world are still being martyred and dying in the name of Jesus.
When the going starts to get tough today in the church or outside the church some Christians walk away from the faith. Persecuted or made fun of for being a Christian at work, school or home some will simply walk away and leave the faith.
And today, we still have those who are like Judas in our midst at church. Those who pretend to be followers of Christ, they still go to church for whatever reason, but they are not Christians.
How about you? What type of football player and what type of Christian are you?