TOPIC: Respect The Word. Sunday 29, June 2014

TOPIC: Respect The Word
Sunday 29, June 2014
TEXT: JEREMIAH 23:33-40

KEY VERSE: “And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God” (Jeremiah 23:36).

The Bible warns in Proverbs 17:19, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.” The prophets in Jeremiah’s time disdained this precious admonition. Predictably, this made them slip, not only into falsehood and wrong doctrine, but also into divine judgment. In the preceding verses, God had been speaking against the excesses of Judah’s false prophets. The Lord also sent Jeremiah to warn the deceivers to be wary of their deceptive acts.

In the passage under consideration, God decided to warn everybody, and not just the false prophets, to desist from unguarded utterances. At this time, the people had begun to wonder about what really annoyed God and what their offences actually were. But they were speaking tongue-in-cheek because they knew why God was not happy with them. God indeed considered their utterances as idle words which He hated.

In our dealings with God, He has always drawn a line between what He expects of us and otherwise. It amounts to sin for anybody to pretend to be in doubt when he or she falls short of such expectation. That was one of the sins of the people of Judah. The almighty God considers such pretence as transgression. Jesus says: “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

In this era of permissiveness, many people try to silence their guilty hearts by trying to rationalize the gravity of their sin. When they sin, they find a Bible passage and wrongly apply same to justify their transgression. We must ask the Spirit of God to direct our paths and let the word of God be our mirror.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: God’s immutable precepts is the believers’ mirror and shield.