Words that Inspire

During a bible study session, the passage we treated was John 2: 12 – 16 . This was the passage where Jesus came into the temple and saw sellers and merchants conducting business. In anger, he picked up a whip and chased them out of the temple. There are so many lessons to be learned from this passage, but what stood out for me was this: Jesus was not afraid to call a spade, a spade. He was not afraid to look at the situation and say ‘ Hey! This should not exist in my father’s house’. In other words, he told the truth about the church.

Telling the truth about the church

Honestly, isn’t that an issue in the church today? We see all sorts of nonsense – women who are scantily dressed and people literally buying and selling merchandise and services in God’s house. There are people who show up on Sundays just to socialize, eating and littering God’s sanctuary. Others still display backbiting, gossiping, envy, stealing, lying and all manners of evils in the church. With clarity and stark awareness, we honor corrupt shepherds and leaders who are disguised in cloaks of supposed holiness, and fellowship with wolves in lamb clothing, and we say absolutely nothing.

Some pastors are afraid to call out wrongdoings, for fear of a dwindling membership count. Instead, they should trust God who brought those members to bring more. How about the members of the church though? When something is going wrong in the church, why must it be left to the pastor to call it out? Is he the only one who has a mantle to live righteously? Is he/she the only one God will judge? When you see wrongdoing in your father’s house, do you have the boldness and courage to say this is wrong?

Hypocrisy about God’s house

If we travel to our hometowns and villages and see 1/3 of the behavior we see in church, happening in our parents or grandparents homes, we will be so upset. Some of us will rain hell on any transgressors or wrongdoers. Yet, we go to church on Sunday and watch each other litter God’s sanctuary, and at the end of the service, we pick up our bags and march out, like we did not see anything, and it is not our responsibility to help clean up.

This lackadaisical, self centered, fear filled behavior has got to stop. We, myself included, need to pray to God for the wisdom, zeal, strength, boldness and courage, to stand in the face of wrongdoing, especially in his house, and call a spade a spade. Of course, we need to remember, that while we go about pointing out what others have done wrong, we should make sure that our ducks are in a row, and we are not off committing some other offenses. May God help us!