JANUARY 2019 ISSUE: CHURCH, WHY SIT ALOOF?
Go out of the ekklesia , go to our homes, go to the supermarkets and shopping malls, go to the schools, go to our offices of work and I tell
you, you will see that those who claim to profess our Lord Jesus Christ are nothing different from the
people of the world.
A quick observation
is–there is a misplaced priority in the church today. Most of our congregations
have gone apostate and some are on the road to apostasy as well. There is a
disconnection between the Church of the Bible and some of our congregations. There
appears to be a bearing of resemblance to the Church of the Bible but taking a
closer look you will realize that these congregations are far off from being
that Church the early disciples were added to.
To see the extent of our disconnection, we have neglected the
book-chapter-and-verse preaching for social gospel messages. How many times have we not heard from our own
people that the church is boring and we should give motivational talks instead
of preaching from the Bible? Hardly, will you hear a sermon on the reality of
sin and hell. How many times do we care
to know that God’s plan of salvation is not only for the alien sinner but for
Christians as well? How many of us really care to declare the whole counsel of
God to the masses and the wandering folks in the world. How many of our
congregations today speak about addiction behind our pulpits? Do we care about the challenging philosophies
of our century that easily cause the young to stray off? How many times have we
spoken behind our pulpits about bribery and corruption? How many times do we
preach about holiness and perfection? Are
we really interested in seeking for the lost and keeping the saved? How many today make the mission of our Lord
a priority in their lives? Do we sit down in our comfort zones and pretend all
is well? In fact, these are the real
stuffs we must start to speak about, if we have not been doing. The sole aim of our Master Christ Jesus was
to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). What about you as His follower?
The
Christian politics is yet another error in the church that thwarts the growth
of the Lord’s Church. Relativism has gained grounds and everyone try to justify
whatever they do because the feel like the masses endorse it. In the world’s
political systems, majority vote is what is considered to be right. And,
Christians have copied the world’s systems instead of living and basing our
judgments on the Word of God which is sufficient for us and contains everything
pertaining to life and godliness (2Peter 1:3;2Tim. 3:16-17). In Paul’s Second
letter to the young gospel preacher, Timothy, he encouraged the young man to
retain the standard of sound words (2Tim. 2:13). Paul by this was telling
Timothy to build on the foundation Christ laid (1 Cor. 3:11) and continue to
preach and teach the truth without fear (2Tim. 1:7). It is a pity to realize
that many of us do not pay heed to the sound warnings of Christ and Paul not to
drift away (John 17:20-21; 1Cor. 1:10-11; Heb. 6:4-6). Many of us in the brotherhood are giving up
on some truths in the Bible. We have politicized Christianity to the extent
that we accept what most people unanimously agree to be the truth. But, I guess
the world and Christians in particular have failed to learn the lesson not to
follow the multitude to do what is evil (Exodus 23: 2). I think we have failed to learn about the
cost of His discipleship. We are not Christians because we want others to like
us and we are not Christians because we want to be accepted by others but rather
we are Christians because we have come to the knowledge of the truth and we
have accepted to stand by the truth forever. And as Christians, we should not
expect to the loved by the world. Christ did not add us to His church to be
liked by others. The Lord rather promised that we would be despised by the
world and therefore must not try to please men if only we desire to walk with
the Lord (Matthew 24:9; 2Tim 3:12). We must preach the word of God in love and
never lose the focus of pleasing the Lord in everything that we do. We have endure the hardship we go through in
the world and continue to teach what is right. We must love the truth and
continually hate every false way (Psalm 119:128).
Hypocrisy
is a problem facing the Church today. We pretend a lot than we really are. We
can be mission champions, regular church attendees but if we pretend and are
not really trying to please God in everything that we do in our lives, we have
failed. God wants people who are
inside-out to worship him not a people of camouflage and pretense. We have to
stop drawing near to the Lord with false lips and work on ourselves to be the
people God really want us to be–faithful and obedient servants. Hypocrisy is
simply pretending to be what one is not. We are like the Pharisees of our
Lord’s Day who spoke and criticize the sins of others while quitting to work on
themselves to overcome their sins. The words of the Apostle Paul in 1
Corinthians 9:27 are still in the Bible. Here, Paul after defending his
apostleship to the erring Church at Corinth who were doubting his apostleship
concluded that chapter by telling the brethren at Corinth that as much as he
tries to preach the word to others he also try as much as possible to
discipline himself and exercise self-control so that we can win the victory
which the Lord will give to those who faithfully follow Him when He is
revealed. By this, he forthrightly meant, he was constantly working on himself
so that he does not stray away. In a
similar way, we, Christians are to constantly work on ourselves before we try
to correct others. We must work on removing the logs in our eyes before we
remove the speck in other people’s eyes (Luke 6:41-42). That is the true
Christian order. Hypocrisy is frown upon
in the Scriptures and we must endeavor to be real before God. God hates
hypocrisy (Mark 7:7-9; Matthew 15:8-9).
Now,
Church, we don’t need to sit aloof. We have to rise up and build on the missing
gaps in our lives. We have to change our thoughts process and know that we are
to serve the Lord our God every time. We must quit the practice of relativism
and hypocrisy. We need to pray to God for a revival. In 2 Chronicles 7,we learn
of King Solomon offering sacrifices to
the Lord in the temple he built for Him and God speaking to him told him
“If I
shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to
devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people and My people who are
called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and
will heal their land.”– 2Chronicles 7:13-14.Here, we get the strong
of idea of revival. King Solomon and the Israelites knew that if they stray
from God, they needed to go back to the Lord in humble spirits and He will
listen to their prayers and revive them. And, so we must. Can we
be humble enough to accept corrections and be humble to be corrected by others?
Can we try to be the real people God want to worship Him? It is my hope and
prayer that we together pray for the Lord to revive us and make us strong. Why
do you sit undisturbed? Rise up Christians!
Let us return to the ancient land marks.
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