"Showing Off"
"I hate all your show and pretense—
the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
I won't even notice all your choice peace offerings.
Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
an endless river of righteous living. (Amos 5:21-24 NLT)
God doesn't primarily care about our public worship services. For Israel, God actually says he hates their public gathering. How can this be? Isn't worship what God most wants from his people?
God is so fed up with his people's public worship because their private lives do not match up. They are great at honoring God with their words but have little interest in giving God their hearts. They think they love God because they sing & sacrifice to him but prove their love for him is superficial by their lack of love for others. Loving God & loving people are undeniably linked! 1 John puts it this way, "If someone says, 'I love God,' but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?" (1 John 4:20 NLT)
His people were able to express love for God but not for others. This revealed their lack of true love for God. In reality, it's all just a show.
In the same way, God does care about our worship on Sunday but not at the expense of the rest of our week. When we praise God with our lips but deny him with our lives, we are just putting on a show & God hates our worship. When we make our lives about singing songs but not about giving of ourselves, God hates our worship. When we make our lives about being religious but not about being righteous God hates our worship. We cannot just lift our hands to God in public worship we must also extend our hands to others in public service. Loving God & loving people is central to our faith & one cannot exist without the other. Loving God without loving others is just a show & loving others without loving God is just impossible.
So, what would God say about out worship? Is it just words or actions too? Is it just Sunday or all week too? Is it just about singing or serving too? Are our lives a show or a service?
No comments:
Post a Comment