Love God With Your Heart
"The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.'" -- Isaiah 29:13
We all know people like this. You might even be one. These folks do all the right things. They attend church. They tithe. They volunteer. They do all these things because they're supposed to do them. They follow rules put down by society and the people around them. Unfortunately, none of it has anything to do with God.
God reminds us here that worship and good deeds mean nothing unless we do those things because we love God with all our hearts. Anything else makes us hypocrites. That's what Jesus called the Pharisees when He quoted Isaiah in Matthew 15:8-9 and Mark 7:6-7. See the Pharisees had lots and lots of rules and they tried to force people to follow those rules. Except the rules had nothing to do with God. They weren't God's rules but rules made by man.
We see that today. A pastor will stand up and say, "The Bible says not to drink alcohol," or "God would vote Republican." No. That's not what the Bible says. Those are statements made by man. Even if the pastor is sincere in his belief, he's still wrong. My Bible commentary calls it idolatry when someone believes his beliefs and Bible interpretations are as important as God's Word. I tend to agree.
"You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men," Jesus said in Mark 7:8. I see it all the time. It's scary. We have become a lazy people who are happy to let others tell us what God says and wants rather than search and seek His Will and His Wisdom for ourselves. It's why we believe what someone else tells us the Bible says rather than read the Bible for ourselves.
God wants us to love Him totally, without reservation or skepticism. He seeks our hearts. When we follow Him because we truly love Him, everything else will fall into place.
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