Vain Worship

There is something plaguing the Christian church of America today. It is so foreboding that it threatens our very existence. Yet oddly enough, it is so commonplace that we fail to recognize its danger. Kind of like a house infiltrated by deadly carbon monoxide that no one knows is there. It threatens the lives of all those in the house if they don't quickly recognize its existence and purge it from their home.

What is this plague? Compartmentalization. The act of separating our lives into isolated compartments or categories.

It could otherwise be termed the "Bill Clinton Syndrome." Do you remember how the news media used to show pictures of Bill Clinton carrying his Bible into his church during the Monica Lewinsky scandal? It was as if he was saying, "Look at me. I'm a Christian. See, I read my Bible and attend church. Never mind the fact that I live like the devil and his fallen angels the other six days of the week." Compartmentalization.

Let me further illustrate. These days, nothing gives you a window into the soul of a person like reading their Facebook profile. I had been attending church for years with many people whom I thought I knew well and whose relationship with Christ I had hoped was deep and mature. But a brief scan of their favorite TV shows, movies and music on Facebook were enough to make me realize that I did not know them at all. When women who lead church ministries list "Desperate Housewives" as one of their favorite shows, something is desperately wrong in the house of God! For those of you who don't know anything about this show (kudos to you), it is the personification of everything that's wrong with America... adultery, homosexuality, immodesty, lust, murder, need I go on?

Shouldn't Christ permeate everything we are, think, and do? You see, Ephesians 5:11 commands us to "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." To call an immoral, smutty show your favorite show is to "have fellowship" with the unfruitful works of darkness. Not only should we not enjoy such entertainment, the Bible says we should reprove it. I encourage you, my friends, to do what I have had to do before and have a holy DVD and CD purging night in your home. May our cabinets, drawers, Tivo wish lists and Facebook pages reflect our love for Christ!

Example number 2. As I was praying outside of the abortion clinic one recent Friday morning, one of the clinic workers dressed in her medical scrubs came speeding around the corner with her music blaring so loudly that I could hear the lyrics with her windows closed shut. It was the familiar sound of gospel music wafting from her sporty car, a song about Jesus the Healer. Need I remind you, this woman is walking into a clinic where they kill innocent human babies almost every day, while at the same time, grooving to gospel music about Jesus, the one who will cast her into hell if she does not repent of being a co-conspirator in murder. How can she tolerate such a contradiction? Blood on her hands, yet the blood of Jesus on her ipod.

I'll tell you how. The American church has lost her salt and ceased to preach the holiness which Christ preached. When the church is truly living out the gospel and the preacher is doing his job, a woman who finds it entertaining to watch smut on her television will squirm under conviction in his pews, and a woman who assists with abortions will clearly know she is in trouble with God. I fear that American Christianity, as a result of the saturation of immorality in our society, has become so lax on sin, that "compartmental Christians" are entirely comfortable to sit in our pews and yet remain in their sin. Don't get me wrong, I want them in the pews! I want them to hear the Word and be saved. I just don't want them to feel comfortable in their stubborn persistence in unholy living.

Oh, how I appreciate the pastors I have had over the years who have proclaimed a convicting, soul-searching message which caused me to squirm and subsequently change! I don't ever want to walk out of a church service the same way I walked in. Step on my toes, preacher. Provoke me to love and good works. Cause me to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. For Jesus' sake, help me change and grow. It is a part of your job description, and it is how your Savior preached. If there was unforsaken sin in Jesus' midst (and there is a lot of it in our churches today), Jesus didn't ignore it, excuse it, or "unpack" it. He rebuked it. His motive was right. He did it in love. But scorning the praise and approval of mankind, he waxed bold and proclaimed to the religious hypocrites among him, "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, ‘This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.' In vain they do worship me...." (Matt. 15:7-9) In vain? Yep.

You might say, "Why, this sounds old-fashioned, Elizabeth. God is love. He forgives. Where does he demand such holiness?" I'm glad you asked! Check out these verses:

"...Let everyone that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity." (2 Tim. 2:19)

"If you love me, keep my commandments." (Jn. 14:15)

"Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is know by his fruit." (Matt. 12:33)

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 Jn. 2:15)

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4)

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt 4:17)

"And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 Jn. 2:3-5)

Wow... even as He walked? How DID He walk? With purity, without hypocrisy, with genuineness, with love for God and His neighbor... 24/7. "But I'm not Jesus, and nobody can be like Jesus" is often quipped when a person is under conviction. Did not the verse above say that we are to walk even as He walked? Jesus did not compartmentalize his life. He wasn't one way around His disciples and another way around his mother and father. He was the real deal! Am I? Are you?