The Word of Truth

Topic

Am I supposed to act like I don’t know God to fit in with others?

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”* (Matthew 15:8)

Please, comment on this verse in detail. When we live as God reveals to us, we are persecuted by the religious world, even by those calling themselves the Church of God. Is our love to God to be an act or a life to live? Please, do not misunderstand me. I have an idea as to how I should live, but the issue is, am I supposed to act like I do not know God so as to fit with the mass? For example, paying hospital bills for people to show our love for them; lying to cover some preacher’s sin; presenting somebody as saved when I am sure they are not saved; joining the masses in violent protests; etc.

Reply:

Dear brother, we had better not live like those folks spoken of in Matthew 15:8. They were hypocrites, who made the commandment of God of none effect by their tradition, and Jesus said of them, “But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”* (Matthew 15:9) As to the idea of doing things that we know are wrong or untrue: “Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.”* (2 Corinthians 8:21) This scripture directly addresses handling finances, and it certainly applies there and elsewhere, too. “But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.”* (2 Corinthians 4:2-3)

“Am I supposed to act like I do not know God so as to fit with the masses?” God forbid. It is contrary to everything that God stands for and consequently we stand for. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” After Jesus told us of the certainty of persecutions and how we should take them (“rejoice and be exceeding glad”), He said, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”* (Matthew 5:13-16) To soft-peddle the gospel in the way you have asked me about would certainly un-acquaint people with the right salty savour of a life lived for God according to the gospel. It would certainly be hiding the truth of the gospel under a bushel; it is to dwell in the depths of a cave instead of on a hill. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” You may say, “Well, they see, but they do not glorify.” That is just it. We must hold it until they do, if they ever will come to that point.

Furthermore, if we are not willing to suffer the firestorm of reproach that comes from being different and incomprehensible to them, just where will they get light? From God, independent of us? Then would we be revealed to be far less than true examples of the gospel! Then would we be exposed as stumblingblocks over which sinners must climb to get to the cross! If we present such a lindsey-woolsey picture of holiness and purity to them, then we add to their confusion, becoming part of the problem, rather than a sample of a divinely-delivered people. God forbid! “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God…. Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”* (1 Timothy 4:10,12)

All who encounter you should be able to say in their hearts, “So this is how Jesus does….” Would Jesus pay the hospital bill?—did Jesus pay the hospital bill for the woman who gave everything she had to the doctors for twelve long years? I tell you, nay. He has something better than that. Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”* (Acts 3:6) Would Jesus lie to cover some preacher’s sin, presenting somebody as saved when they are not? Shame on the devil! No, Jesus never lies. What a slander! “Let us do evil, that good may come?”* (Romans 3:8) God forbid. Would Jesus join the masses in violent protests? “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not…. My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path.”* (Proverbs 1:10,15) “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.”* (Isaiah 42:1-2)

Oh, my brother, if the saints won’t be saints—at all times, in all places, both privately and publicly—then who will be saints? “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”* (1 Peter 4:17-19)