Most people enjoy watching what they hope does not occur to them, someone slipping on the ice, a car crash, war, as long as its “over there.” Adverse conditions are never anticipated with joy, but they are viewed many times with pleasure.
We feign an attitude of disgust with war, we reproach those who ask of us, “Why did you laugh when he fell,” we will do all we can to in effect to say we love our neighbor, but our actions for the most part speak differently. “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” (Matt. 15:8)
You may attempt to deceive yourself in this area all you care to, but God looks on the heart, (1 Sam. 16:7) He knows who you are at your core, you cannot hide who you are from Him.
I believe most people think that the main attribute, His overriding character trait is love, that that is what holds back His wrath, His anger, His vengeance upon an evil, sinful world that more each day continues to rebel against His Sovereignty in ways heretofore unheard of. Moses, the servant of God, (Deut. 34:5) stood in the gap when the Lord determined to destroy the entire nation and begin again with him, (Deut. 9:14) but did he stand in that gap because of love for His nation, or because the Lord’s name would be dishonored amongst the heathen?
2 Samuel 12:14 professes the latter. “Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.” God was not concerned that David’s name would be besmirched, but His own.
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3) And Jesus could care less, all that mattered was that God would be glorified in His life.
There is a game that many who call themselves after the name of Jesus play, a façade, a covering of holiness, performing the routines, the traditions, not so they would be abased in humility in front of the Most High for His glory, but so they will seem holy in front of men. They deceive themselves in their supposed attempts to portray a form of godliness but denying the power thereof (2 Tim. 3:5) by living in and for the world. They rush out into it each morning with anticipation, performing deeds that will earn them the money to obtain more of that world, yet leave not only their Bibles on the end table, but Christ out of their hearts as they do so.
Their concern for the lost is obligatory, and most generally only expressed by the amount they put in the offering plate as it passes by, or a quick, well-rehearsed prayer for the relief from the same turmoil’s that they themselves hope do not approach their own lives. It is a television show to them, and effects their heart only when it comes to one they hold dear to themselves.
After World War 2, the citizens of the towns that were closest to the concentration camps were marched to those death houses and forced to view the carnage, the evil that had been happening right next door to them, to their neighbors. I am sure a sense of forced attrition befell many of them, but more than likely there were numerous excuses. This is what many who have deceived themselves into the belief of what is actually a false profession of the Lord Jesus Christ will do for a very long time after they open their eyes in hell. They served themselves while professing a faith they never had in the first place.
If you have ever slipped on the ice and hurt yourself, and in the distance heard someone laughing at your misfortune, you know exactly what this letter to you is about.
