“Hypocrites!
Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with
their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’.”
Matthew
15:7-9 NKJV
Reading
an article earlier this morning, the author was pointing out the mistakes many
Christians make when reaching out (that is, if they bother reaching out at
all), not least among these mistakes being an insistence that others must
embrace our own beliefs in order to get right with The Lord. And
often our own beliefs (honest though they may be) have not been fully vetted or
conditioned upon what is actually written in the whole of the Scripture,
relying more heavily on whatever can fit on a bumper sticker – and even then
not being quite biblical.
Of
course Christians can stay up nights trying to list all the things others find
wrong with us of the Church, and we can lose a lot of sleep worrying about
things we cannot change. Some people just don’t want to hear it.
Often, however, even Christians don’t want to hear the Truth, preferring
instead something we have created for ourselves over time, maybe having heard
it on TV by some well-to-do preacher that resonated with us. It is so
easy to get caught up in half-truths but when we do, a closer look through the
lens of Scripture might reveal that what we are embracing is not quite what is
written. “Cleanliness is next to godliness” springs to mind.
The
prophet nailed the people of Judah. Actually The Lord did, and nailed
them through His prophet. In quoting the prophet, however, Jesus was not
speaking strictly of a time or a people of the past. Jesus is speaking a timeless
truth: even the people of The Lord can get caught up in paying cheap lip
service to The Lord while betraying biblical principles in our hearts.
Think of displaying deep love for The Lord on social media while ignoring the
Church, the “ekklesia”, the assembly of The Lord’s people. Or passing on
rumors we do not have first-hand knowledge of, but doing so because we desire
to do damage to so-and-so or just want to fit in with a particular clique
(especially during election season!). The harsh truth is we cannot claim
allegiance to Christ when we willfully (and often gleefully) get so caught up
in the intentional destruction of so-and-so, or ignoring the real needs of the
community we are called to serve.
Words
are easy, and talk is cheap. Being a disciple, however, is hard; but
nothing worth pursuing is ever easy. As a priest of my childhood once
said, “If you find following Christ to be easy, you’re doing it wrong.”
Social media has its place, but it cannot become a replacement for genuine
relationships through which people can actually see the love of The Lord
we profess not only with our lips but with our hands and feet as well. In
the end, that is what discipleship is about: sharing what we know to be true in
life-transforming ways not only for ourselves but for others as well.
There can be nothing so deeply “personal” about a relationship we claim with
Christ that does not express itself outwardly in meaningful ways beyond our
mere words.
The
Lord desires our hearts, our full devotion, and full attention – and for
reasons we cannot begin to fathom until we actually start taking Him at His
Word and listen to Him carefully – even when He seems harsh. Think about
it. If He didn’t care about us, He would have stopped speaking to us long
ago.
Michael
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