Tuesday, June 12, 2012

GOD HATES HYPOCRISY


"Sincerity is the life of all graces and puts life into all our duties.
Just as sincerity covers all defects, hypocrisy uncovers the soul and strips it naked before God despite the richest embroidery of other qualities. This scab grows on even the sweetest perfection and changes the person's complexion in God's eye more drastically than leprosy destroys the fairest face.
It is interesting to see how Scripture portrays the different characters of Asa and Amaziah. The writer says of Asa: "The high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days" 1 kings 15:14. Like true gold, sincerity allows grains for lightness. Asa's infirmities were not mentioned as flaws to dim his honor but as a wart or mole which an artist might use to accent the beauty of his other features. Thus failures were recorded to give a greater attractiveness to his sincerity, which-- in spite of his sins-- won a good testimony from God's own mouth.
Yet it is said of Amaziah, "He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart 2 Chronicles 25:2. His actions were good but his attitude was faulty-- and this turned his right into wrong. Thus we see how Asa's uprightness supported him in the midst of many shortcomings, but hypocrisy condemned Amaziah as he did what was right.
Sincerity is the life of all graces and puts life into all our duties, as life keeps the body warm and beautiful. And prayer breathed from a sincere heart is heaven's delight. If sincerity is gone, God must say of prayers what Abraham said of Sarah, whom he had loved dearly while she was alive: "Bury my dead out of my sight" Genesis 23:4.
"Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; ...your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them" Isaiah 1:13-14.. The thing God loathed which made Him speak so coarsely against His own ordinances was hypocrisy.”
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617

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