What was once pure and undefiled has become corrupt and used as a weapon to slay the brethren by casting them out, by accusing them, by judging them, punishing them by causing them to stumble in the faith. Hypocrisy is the fruit of self-righteousness, and the bane of the judgmental believer. God will not overlook such wickedness practiced by those claiming to walk in love while causing another to stumble.
Christians today are not the same as the first believers in Christ. Read Luke and Acts first to get a very good overview and then proceed to read the rest of the letters contained within the collection known as the New Testament. And then go on to read the letters written to the believers by the disciples under the apostles charge such as Polycarp and Ignatius who learned from direct eyewitnesses to the events described, and read the Didache which also reveals the standard of the first Christians. Then compare what you read to what you see today, and weep. We are as far away as Pluto when measured against the genuine walk of the first century faithful.
We talk of love while voting to remove undesired believers from the group. We talk of love while pointing accusing fingers. We point out the sins of others while wearing silk blindfolds. We scorn others weaknesses but hide our own under the cover of pretentious righteousness. Hypocrites! Workers of iniquity! Practicers of lawlessness, forgetting that you once were covered in filthy rags and thoroughly saturated in your sins! Will you despise those whom the Lord came to save and restore to Himself? Dare you to shut the door in their faces while you act so arrogantly in your prejudice and extreme blindness?
But this is how you act and behave, and this is an open canker on your hearts, a poison in your blood, and an infectious boil in your minds. Despising the riches of our Lord Jesus as you cast the innocent down and trample them with your feet, turn and wipe your mouths, declaring yourselves justified, but in whose eyes? Not in our Savior, for in so doing, you are heaping burning coals upon your heads against wrath in the day of wrath. A clanging cymbal brings more joy than a hypocrite bathed in their world of double hearts and divided tongues.
The hour has struck to either serve the Lord Jesus in love, faith, and obedience, or take the plank. To serve one another with humblness, esteeming the other more highly than yourselves, or to return as a sow to the mire from whence you came. The third choice is to repent of your wickedness, which requires humility and grace, and is that something you desire to do or are loath to acknowledge? The walk of faith is far more than a set of ethics printed on sheets of paper, and of far greater value than creeds and dogmas set forth by the hands of men. The Lord Jesus showed us the way through His example which we are beholden to follow if indeed we claim discipleship. And His disciples we are if we truly walk in the light as He is in the light. If we love as He loves us. If we forgive as He forgave us. But when we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet despise the brethren we prove ourselves to be liars and the truth is not in us. When we say that we know Him and do not do as He commands we make ourselves out to be liars and the light we claim is indeed great darkness.
Brethren, this kind of faith is not faith at all, but more a mantel of pretentious faith bereft of all truth, and this should not be! How can we call upon the goodness of the Lord while despising those for whom He also perished to receive unto Himself? Is this the love you were called to reveal to the world of lost sinners? Will they come to the saving grace of God’s mercies in Christ through your callous examples of faithless love? Repent of your actions before the Lord that your souls may be restored and you may receive mercy and grace before you are swept up in that hour least expected when the unfaithful servant shall be cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Love is God, and mercy and grace through Jesus Christ is offered to all men, not just you and I, but to all, sinners and saints alike. And those of the faith are called to walk in love, to serve in the bonds of love, not the love of this world, but the love that comes from the Father of lights, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And His love was and is revealed through the sacrifice of His Only Son, Jesus Christ, to and through us to a world held captive in sin and death. We are called of Christ to serve one another in the bonds of love, not sensual as the world knows it, but in the purity of the gospel without stain or blemish. Not corrupted or tainted by compromising, but fervent in desire, faithful in practice, and obedient unto death. Jesus Christ is our hope, our resurrection, and life eternal if we remain in Him and His teachings and commandments. It is the Father’s will in heaven that we do exactly as the Son commands us to do, just as the faithful servant goes about His master’s business, doing as directed.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two points hang the law and prophets. Which of these do you not understand as you practice hypocrisy within the fellowship? How can the weak brother or sister return to the Lord when you stand and reproach them by making a public spectacle out of them? You fool and hypocrite! Repent of your wickedness before incuring the wrath of the Lord and receiving burning coals of condemnation yourself! We are called to walk in love, not to practice iniquity. We are not to favor the rich above the poor, the fine clothed against the shabby ones, the well-educated against the illiterate, male against female, but we are called to esteem the other more highly than ourselves. To be ready to forgive, and not to keep records of wrong doings as many appear to be doing, and that to their open shame and dishonor. For with what measure you use against another, the exact same will be used against you.
These few words are to admonish you to walk faithfully in love, not in blind arrogance and haughtiness of spirit, not using pretentious conversations while harboring resentment in your hearts. Let your faith be pure and undefiled, without hypocrisy and judgments, caring for the needs of each other, looking out for the welfare of those in need, not neglecting the poor, the widows or the orphans as we have been taught. If we say that we are walking in the light, then may it be seen through our love and compssion through Jesus Christ, and not hidden behind masks of deceit.
May our words of love have genuine substance and not cause stumblings to the brethren and those watching, for the eyelids of the Lord test the hearts of men, and there is nothing hidden which shall not be uncovered.
I remain a brother to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Edward L Ordway
