2008-10-24
Good Morning Cherished of God,
We’ve been examining the parallels between MT 7: 1-5 [Christ’s Sermon on the Mount words about judgment] and RO 2: 1-6, 17-24 [Paul’s discussion of traditionally Jewish hypocrisy in his time]. The Holy Spirit directs me to continue looking at them. Today, we begin by comparing MT 7: 4-5 with RO 2: 22-23, “How dare you say to your brothers, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye…You say, ’Do not commit adultery’-but do you commit adultery? You detest idols-but do you rob temples? You boast about having God’s law-but do you bring shame on God by breaking His law?”
We can’t excuse this kind of sinfulness, but we must have an understanding that often, it comes on gradually, for the hypocrite was raised in such a way that he is unaware that his behavior is hypocritical. It’s like a child who is raised in a home where this kind of thinking, attitude, and actions are all he knows. A perfect example of this is the pre-civil war southern child, who is raised to think of African Americans as the “servant class,” while at the same time thinking of America of this period as a “free country.” The same thing during this same period was going on in India where the British people living there were raised to believe that India’s own native people were a “servant class,” while Britain was thought to be the “ruling class” with the largest empire in the world. Despite the lack of awareness, this attitude was definitely still a sin, a sin that needed change and expulsion from people’s lives. That was to come with the American civil war and with India’s successful drive for independence from Britain. Sadly, in both cases precious human life had to be lost.
The salient issue here is coming to a full understanding that our most powerful God is indeed the only One to Whom such worship is wholly appropriate. Oddly enough, I personally acknowledge God’s ultimate authority and power, but desire to worship Him for another reason. It’s His righteous compassion and extraordinary love. The authority of the Father and the Son are seen in DN 4: 17 [see also RO 13: 1-2] and DN 7: 13-14, “This is the decision of the alert watchful angels. So then, let all people everywhere know that the Supreme God has power over human kingdoms and that He can give them to anyone He chooses-even the least important of men…During this vision in the night, I saw what looked like a Human Being. He was approaching me, surrounded by clouds, and He went to the Ancient of Days Who had been living forever and was presented to Him. He was given authority, honor, and royal power, so that the people of all nations, races, and languages would serve Him. His authority would last forever, and His Kingdom would never end.” [See also, DN 2: 34-35]. These two passages describing a portion of two of Daniel’s visions are two of a number of places in the Scriptures where we are given a glimpse of God’s power to teach humans necessary and tough lessons. We need to be reminded, as we are in PS 147: 5,”Our Lord is great and very powerful. There is no limit to what He knows.” PS 77: 13-15, “Everything You do, O God, is holy. No God is as great as You. You are the God Who works miracles; You showed Your might among the nations. By Your power You save Your people the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.”
If we ask how this ties together, we have missed the message. Our God is the only Entity which has ultimate power, and we can be most thankful that He uses it with patience and compassion. Having said that, it must be understood how compelling is the message that we act in accordance with His will, so that we will never be hypocrites in our thoughts, decisions, and actions. DT 32: 4, “The Lord is your mighty Defender, perfect and just in all His ways. Your God is faithful and true; He does what is right and fair.” God’s will is never hypocritical or evil; it is righteous and necessary to peace. PS 21: 11-12, “They [God’s enemies] make their plan and plot against Him, but they will not succeed. He will shoot His arrows at them and make them turn and run.” Learning God’s will may take us some time and effort, but nothing in the life is more worth it. No one who has ever learned His will and lived according to it has entirely escaped some trouble, but he has reduced it to manageable proportions and has been guaranteed eternal life. Why the trouble, even for a person living righteously? This is God’s way of leading us to greater maturity and knowledge of Himself. Two important principles apply. 1) God will never allow sufficient trouble to break our spirits or our resolve to remain firm in our faith in Him [1 COR 10: 13], and 2) the person who repents and genuinely professes faith in Jesus Christ, will be saved and given the gift of the Holy Spirit [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; RO 8: 14-16; EPH 2: 8-10]. It is through Christ’s Atonement and subsequent Resurrection that we have the choice between living righteously and sinning, and that we have the assurance that we can look forward to a blissful eternal fellowship with Him. As for His attitude- we see it plainly, in COL 3: 9-10, “Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself.” Our God loves us enough to be doing this long, gradual, and difficult task as part of His part in the Covenant of Grace. We must now look at our part and how we might be doing that.
PRAYER: O Lord, how very often we come before You in Your temple making pleas for things we want without paying attention to Your will for us, even when we know it. You never will that a person should appear caring, yet stab another behind his back. Nor did Your Son take pleasure after His conversation with the rich young man, in MT 19: 16-22. When He had to say in (24), “It’s much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,” Christ knew that God’s righteousness would be revealed when that young man would suffer the consequences of his refusal to sell all his belongings and follow Him. How many of us living in our wealthy country will avoid condemnation for our insistence on materialism and excuses for selfishness? Hypocrisy takes many forms, as many as there are crafty ways the adversary establishes his strongholds where we are vulnerable. There are some in our society who believe we are “entitled” to what we have, even our freedoms. And yet, we all too often forget that many young people are losing their lives on foreign soil to protect those freedoms. We stand before You today to ask You to protect us from the sin of idol worship and the feeling of entitlement. For it is to You that should belong our thanks and praise for Your generosity. It is to You alone that we should offer worship and dedicate our lives as “living sacrifices of service pleasing and acceptable to You” [RO 12: 1]. PS 31: 3-5, “You are my Refuge and Defense; guide me and lead me as You have promised. Keep me safe from the snare that has been set for me; shelter me from danger. I place myself in Your care. You will save me, Lord; You are a faithful God.” We dedicate ourselves to living righteously according to Your standards. We thank and praise You for Your faithfulness and the example of Your Son, Jesus Christ for us to follow. In His mighty and holy name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, our examination of parallels between RO 7: 1-5 and RO 2: 1-6, 17-24 continues with a discussion of how others outside the Body of Christ are impacted by hypocrisy. Each of us has experienced at one time or another what it means to find ourselves on the receiving end of hypocrisy. Often this happens in family relationships. While we looked at relationships impacted by it on the national level this week, we need to examine how it in a more personal way next week. Allowing the evil one to have sway in our lives moves us further and further apart from God. His patience and love for us may lead to Him to rescuing us. PS 40: 1-2, “I waited patiently for the Lord’s help; then He listened to me and heard my cry. He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly quicksand. He set me safely on a Rock and made me secure.” All of this depends on the nature of our sinfulness and the number of times we have allowed the adversary to get to us in this context. God has His limits, as the devil knows only too well [JOB: 1: 12; REV 12: 12; REV 20: 10]. Because of God’s love for us, He has EPH 1: 4-5 for His mission statement. “Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be His through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before Him. Because of His love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ He would make us His sons-this was His pleasure and purpose.” Our Lord Jesus was sacrificed on the cross, so that we might have salvation and eternal life [JN 3: 16]. What greater love can there be? Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn