What would you think of me if I stole my neighbor’s lawn mower and said, “I don’t think he cares.”? Would you think I had lost my mind if I then said, “You can’t show me where it is against the law.”? No sane person would say such a thing. You would think, “Obviously that is your neighbor’s property and of course he cares.” and “What does it even mean, “I can’t show you where it is against the law.’?” You would assume I was joking or call the men in the white coats to bring a straitjacket. Yet this is the way many of our religious friends approach their worship to God. The church is God’s property, he cares, and he has established what is right or wrong for those who seek to please him.
I Don’t Think God Cares
I must admit to you, this comes from a conversation I had with a Christian within the last month. They told me they didn’t think, “God gave a bent nail about instrumental music in the church.” Needless to say, I disagreed and do disagree. After I gave our conversation some thought, two ideas kept running through my head.
1) Of course God cares. It is his church. It is worship to and of God. He cares what and how it is done.
2) If God doesn’t care about instrumental music in worship; how do I know what He does care about?
Jesus tells us our worship can be in vain (Matthew 15:9). How many times are we told to worship the Lord our God and him only (Exodus 20:3; Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8)? God cares what we do in our worship to him. Paul spends almost half of the book of I Corinthians correcting sin in the church. He upbraids them for everything from allowing sexual misconduct among members, to drunken and disorderly worship. In the midst of that he give us proper instruction on the Lord’s Supper (I Corinthians 11:17-34), singing and teaching (I Corinthians 14:26), giving (I Corinthians 16:1-3), prayer (I Corinthians 11:4-5), and a host of other things done, “when you come together as a church”-I Corinthians 11:18. That is quite a bit of instruction for a God who doesn’t care what happens in his Son’s church. Like our neighbor’s lawn mower, the church belongs to God and he cares what we do with it!
You Can’t Show Me Where It’s Against the Law
What a silly thing to say, but how many people who claim to be Christians say the same thing? My first impression is always that people must be ignorant of what the Bible says. In many, many cases that is absolutely true Earlier this year, people were shocked when Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson quoted from I Corinthians 6:9-10. They had literally never heard those words and the man conducting the interview assumed he must be paraphrasing the Bible. What Robertson, who passed away last month, read was I Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Reading the Bible will convict the heart.
Who Am I Seeking To Please?
Let us take a look at what God has done for us and ask what we can do to please our Lord. He sent his Son down to die on the cross for my sins (John 3:16; II Corinthians 5:21). God gave Jesus a kingdom and expects us to serve him as our king (Matthew 28:18; Philippians 2:9-11). Jesus is the head of the church and he has given the Bible to us as the written expression of his authority (Ephesians 5:23; II Timothy 3:15-17). He does care what happens in his church and we can know what is right or wrong in his kingdom. So, it all comes down to this: Am I seeking to please God or myself? That is a matter of the heart. But as a way of gentle encouragement, please remember the words of the Hebrew writer, “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”-Hebrews 11:6.
Seek to please God. Serve his Son by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Jesus will save you.. -JS
Leave a Reply