Ruminating on ROMANS! (Some Thoughts on Paul’s Great Epistle) #5 A Primer on Hypocrisy! Romans 2:17-24

Many of you know that my New Jersey friend Frank and I are reading through God’s Word together (described here). We’re now in the book of Romans and are reading chapter 2 each day this week. Here is something that I noticed in reading this chapter:

Just a few observations:

1. Notice the multiple uses of the word IF in this section. Hypocrisy begins when one is not who one claims to be. The conditional statements following each of these IF’s are good: being a Jew, relying on the law and boasting in God, knowing His will and approving of what is superior, being convinced that one is a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, one who has the law (the embodiment of knowledge and truth) . . .

2. The sin of hypocrisy expresses itself when one ceases to self-teach. Teaching others is great. But if one doesn’t educate himself in godliness, then hypocrisy reigns (v. 21).

3. The examples of hypocrisy Paul gives are several: preaching against stealing (but being a thief yourself), saying people shouldn’t commit adultery (but committing adultery yourself), abhoring idols (but robbing temples yourself), boasting in the law (but dishonoring God by breaking the law).

4. The great tragedy of hypocrisy is that causes the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles because of the hypocrite’s conduct. Is there a greater or more harmful effect than THAT?

Ask yourself — as I have just done — am I being a HYPOCRITE in my life in any way? And if the answer is YES, then immediately repent and plead for God’s help in having your behavior match your beliefs!

 

Getting to Know . . . 2 Samuel (chapter 12) The Rebuke of David’s Sin (Part 2)

“Rebuke the king?”, Nathan might have thought to himself. But that’s what the Lord calls him to do. Let’s read over 2 Samuel 12 and then make a few more observations:

We have seen that Nathan’s obedience to the Lord provides several guidelines for us when we need to confront another person with their sin.

Here are several of those principles:

1. Make sure you are sent by the Lord (v. 1).

2. Use wisdom in your confrontation (vv. 1-4). The story that Nathan tells – with the heart-touching details of a family pet being stolen and barbequed by an evil rich man incenses David! And when David says, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die” (v. 5), he condemns himself!

3. Speak directly about the sin (vv. 7ff). The “man,” by the way, is the word ISH in Hebrew. Nathan says in verse 7, “ISH! You are the man, David!”

4. Review God’s acts of kindness and goodness in the person’s life (vv. 8-10). Nathan reminds David what the Lord had given him and what the Lord was ready to further give him – if he had only asked!

5. Speak of the awful evil of despising God’s word (vv. 9-10). Please notice that despising the word of the Lord and despising the Lord Himself are equivalent expressions in these verses.

6. Warn the person of God’s hatred of sin and His power to bring judgment into one’s life (vv. 11-14). The Lord will bring calamity on David from his own household. Someone will sleep with his wives in broad daylight before all Israel (David’s sin was in secret)!

(to be continued)

A couple of takeaways for today:
1.God hates sin and must punish it!
2. We are wired up to get outraged at another’s sin but minimize our own!
3. We need people in our lives who will lovingly confront us with our sin!
4. It is always right to remind each other of the Lord’s kindnesses to us!

Your thoughts?

 

Evangelical Ethics? (Time for a Truthful Cartoon)

 

Jonah: Belief Contradicted by Behavior (Part 11)

Let’s continue thinking about Jonah’s first orthodox statement:  “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”  Like the rest of us, what Jonah says he believes is very orthodox.  But his professed beliefs are contradicted by his behavior!

“I am a Hebrew” — Jonah does not hesitate to identify himself as one of God’s covenant people.  He is proud, it seems, instead of being ashamed that he is betraying his heritage and refusing to do his part in fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant of being a blessing to all people (Gen. 12).

“and I worship the Lord . . .” — What is worship?  Is it merely ceremony, rituals performed to placate a sometimes angry deity?  How could he say “I worship the Lord”?  How can we say we worship the Lord when we don’t do what He tells us to do?

“the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” —  This is the Creator God!  This is the One who is responsible for this lethal storm.  This is the One who fashioned the dry land (which these sailors were longing for about right now).  We Evangelicals make a lot out of God as Redeemer, and rightly so.  But, I wonder, have we ignored much of the Bible’s witness to God as Creator?

This is no deistic-designed universe.  God is personally involved in sustaining His world. And He sustains His servant long enough for him to identify himself theologically.  But even pagans can see through such hypocrisy (to be continued).