William Wilberforce, the British MP who led the fight to abolish the slave trade, wrote in his book Real Christianity the following: "Measure your progress [as a Christian] by your experience of the love of God and its exercise before men...

"In contrast, servile, base, and mercenary is the notion of Christian practice among the bulk of nominal Christians.  They give no more than they dare not withhold.  They abstain from nothing but what they dare not practice.  When you state to them the doubtful quality of any action, and the consequent obligation to refrain from it, they reply to you in the very spirit of Shylock [the infamous, greedy character from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice], ‘they cannot find it in the bond.'

"In short, they know Christianity only as a system of restraints.  It is robbed of every liberal and generous principle.  It is rendered almost unfit for the social relationships of life, and only suited to the gloomy walls of a cloister, in which they would confine it.

"But true Christians consider themselves as not satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude.  Accordingly, theirs is not the stinted return of a constrained obedience, but the large and liberal measure of voluntary service."  Quoted in Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity, 132-33. 

Nominal Christians, full of fear for themselves and their joy, give no more than what is absolutely required.  But Jesus said, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."  Luke 6:37-38.