Lip-Service to God?
In both Matthew 15:3-9 and Mark 7:1-13, it is recorded how Jesus resolutely condemned the worship of a couple of the most highly religious groups of His day. The reason? They were honoring God with their lips – claiming to honor, follow, and glorify Him and His edicts and authority with their worship – but who were, in reality, only honoring the standards and traditions of men with their worship practices instead. While thus paying God ‘lip-service’ when it came to their worship – perhaps proclaiming to both themselves and to others that they were worshipping and submitting to almighty God as almighty God – the fact is,that their worship was not at all in accordance with,or obedience to, His commandments;but was instead, in accordance with, and obedience to, the doctrines and commandments of mere men.
Thus, Jesus pronounced their worship: null, vain, void, futile, useless, worthless, and/or pointless. In other words, they might as well have not even bothered as far as God was concerned. He wasn’t going to honor, accept, or even recognize their worship as ever having happened!Why? Because they had given God the standard by which He would judge their worship: As they did not honor Him with it, He would not honor them for it. Simple as that.
While we in the Lord’s church often cite these texts in reference to the vain, futile, man-made and demonic doctrines (1 Tim. 4:1-6; 2 Tim. 4:1-4; 2 Ptr. 2:1-3) of the man-made and named denominations all around us who practice them, the fact is, that this same truth, both can, and sometimes might apply to us, only on a different topic. Take for instance, the God-demanded practice of forgiveness.
We all know that we absolutely will not get to heaven unless we forgive others. Period. Jesus made that point perfectly, abundantly, and repeatedly clear, both in person and through His hand-picked apostles (Matt. 6:14-15; Eph. 4:31-32; Col. 3:12-13; and etc.). We also know that in order to be acceptable to God, our forgiveness of our brethren’s trespasses – just like the acceptable worship indicated by Matthew 15:3-9 and Mark 7:1-13 – must also come from the heart (Matt. 18:21-35 – see verse 35 in particular). In other words, it must be more than just simply paying forgiveness ‘lip-service.” It must be backed up by obedient, Biblical, practice.
To tell someone “I forgive you, …but…” – “BUT, I can no longer fellowship with you,” “BUT, I can no longer worship in the same building as you,” or, “BUT, I can no longer work together with you in the kingdom” – is not true, God-honoring, and God-imitating forgiveness. It is not forgiveness “as,” or in the same way, in which God has forgiven us (Again: Matt. 18:21-35; Eph. 4:31-32; Col. 3:12-13; and etc.). It is merely paying God’s demand and standard of forgiveness ‘lip-service,’ while honoring and adhering to the world’s standard of ‘forgiveness’ instead, isn’t it? Tell me, when God forgave you(Acts 2:38, 22:16), did He in any way include or indicate, that even though He had forgiven you, that He still would not fellowship with you? Or that He would not want you in worship with Him? Or that He would not want to work with you in His kingdom? Of course not! That’s absurd! (See: Rom. 8:1-17; 1 Jn. 1:1-4; Matt. 26:27-29; Phil. 1:6, 2:13!)
You see, God-honoring, imitating, and required forgiveness:
- Refuses to stay angry with the offender; it forgets the trespass and removes it totally from the record; it’s as if it never happened (Psa. 103:9-12; 1 Cor. 13:4-7).
- Doesn’t just simply say “I forgive you,” or even just immediately restore the relationship back to its former state which it had before the trespass occurred; but it actually and in reality, takes the relationship to a whole, new, better and higher level than it has ever enjoyed before (Lk. 15:20-32; Acts 2:37-47;Gal. 3:22-27; Hebs. 7:7-10:25)!
To do anything else, or less, when it comes to forgiveness, is to only pay ‘lip-service’ to God’s commandment that we must forgive– and must do so “as” we ourselves have been forgiven by God.To do anything else, or less, when it comes to forgiveness, is to honor God with our lips, while proving that our hearts are far from Him.To do anything else, or less, when it comes to forgiveness, is to honor and adhere to man’s standard and definition of forgiveness, over and against what God’s standard, definition, and exampleof forgiveness is.
Similarly, just like those who deceived themselves into thinking that their ‘worship’ was pleasing and acceptable to God even when it wasn’t – because they were honoring and adhering to men’s standards of worship rather than His – we, too, can easily deceive ourselves into thinking that our ‘forgiveness’ is pleasing and acceptable to God, when it isn’t either – and for the same reason. When we claim to forgive, only paying it ‘lip-service,’ but don’t truly forgive from the heart in accordance with God’s instructions and definition, then just like the worship mentioned in Matthew 15 and Mark 7, doesn’t that demand that our humanly-devised and defended brand of ‘forgiveness,’ is likewise,viewed and branded by God, as:null, vain, void, futile, useless, worthless, and pointless?Doesn’t it mean that God isn’t going to honor, accept, or even recognize it as ever having happened in the first place? And if He refuses to recognize what we choose to call ‘forgiveness,’ because it is carried out in accordance with man’s standards instead of His,then He has made it clear that he will not forgive us either – because in His eyes we have still not truly and legitimately forgiven.
Some might surely say, “But it’s so hard to forgive like that!” Yes. That’s right. It is. If you don’t think so, just ask Jesus (Matt. 26:27-29; Mk. 2:1-12; Lk. 23:34). He knows. Maybe that’s why He also gives us the help and power to complete it (Phil. 4:13; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 13:20-21).
In Luke 6:38, Jesus said “For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Accordingly,if the ‘lip-service’ measure of ‘forgiveness’that we sometimes fatally choose to levy on our brethren, includes the fact that we will still neither work, worship, fellowship,or have anything to do with them – and that, at the very least as much as we used to – then do we not force God’s measure of ‘forgiveness’ of us on Judgment Day to consist of the very same conditions according to that verse? And certainly none of us can afford that, can we?
Remember: God has shown us exactly how He wants us to forgive while we’re here. And we show God by the way we do that, exactly how we want Him to forgive us when we get there. Now, who do you need to go forgive … fully … from the heart … today … “even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32)?