Nip It In the Bud

“The Bible is clear about how we should live our lives. If we can nip hypocrisy in the bud, and exhibit the love and compassion of Christ, we can reach young and old alike. For sure we can’t live like the devil all week and then sit in a pew in pious judgment and righteous condemnation on Sunday. Potential new followers of Christ can spot such behavior a mile away. God is the Judge and not us.” – Bob Williamson

Last Sunday, I preached on Nehemiah, Chapter 5. It deals with Nehemiah’s anger at the people charging usury (which means extravagantly high interest rates) to those who needed to borrow money for food. If the borrower couldn’t repay the loan, the greedy loan sharks would then confiscate their property and/or enslave their children.

Such practices were forbidden in Jewish law (see Exodus 22:25 and Leviticus 25:36), but the unscrupulous lenders did it anyway. And so, Nehemiah reamed them out and demanded that they stop immediately. He also put into place a plan by which they would have to return the confiscated properties and set free the enslaved children.

The first point in my message was that as Christians, we are to hate the things that God hates. High on that list is taking advantage of the helpless and less fortunate, such as widows and orphans, and being a hypocrite. In fact, Jesus dedicated an entire chapter in Matthew 23 to calling the Pharisees “on the carpet” for their hypocrisy. If they didn’t repent, He proclaimed a series of “woes” on them.

My friend, each of us has been guilty of hypocrisy from time to time. After all, we are merely sinners saved by grace. And so, the “old man” will continue to pester and plague us until our dying day. However, that doesn’t mean that we should just throw in the towel and surrender to our sinful habits. On the contrary, we should – as Bob Williamson advises in today’s quote – try to nip hypocrisy in the bud every time it rears its ugly head in our lives.

Doing so will honor God, give our critics less ammunition to use against us, and be a shining example for new believers.

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” I Timothy 4:12 (ESV)

“Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” Titus 2:7-8 (ESV)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President