IRREVERENCE Part II

You might be thinking to yourself, "Wait a minute, you are picking on the contemporary church crowd. What about the coat and tie traditional crowd?" Honestly, they can be just as guilty. Let's look at Isaiah 29:13 "Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote." Wearing your Sunday best, repeating the liturgy, praying out of a prayer book, and singing three hymns accompanied by an organ does not make you reverent. Much of the contemporary movement was a reaction to the lifeless, heartless, traditional service where the reverence was ritualized, not internalized. Reverence begins in the heart and its attitude towards God, and at the heart of true worship is reverence towards God. Part of why we are to gather together is to corporately revere God; and in that corporate reverence is a testimony to the greatness of this God who commands such honor and respect.

You may think that this was really an Old Testament issue, and the New Testament God of grace and love is not so harsh and demanding. Read I Corinthians 11:17-34 about the Corinthians attitude and handling of the Lord's supper. Check out verses 27-32, "Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgement to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world." What was God's discipline upon members of this church (which so resembles the American church of today)? Many were weak, many were sick, and a number (obviously more than one) slept (were dead). Go read Acts five about God's dealings with Ananias and Sapphira. Would God do this today? Well, you might be familiar with the Waco pastor who, two years ago, was electrocuted in the baptistry in front of his congregation after leading them in a prayer saying, "Surprise me, Lord. "Let not many of you become teachers, for as such, you will incur a stricter judgement."

If you noticed in the section above where I quoted from I Corinthians, the Corinthians were so spiritually dull that Paul had to tell them that the reason some were sick, or weak, or dead was because of God's hand of discipline among them. They could not see it themselves. Take a step back and take a good look at your church. Could the same thing be happening there? Has it been happening and no one has been able to see it because of the spiritual shallowness of the congregation? Could this be going on in American churches and no one is noticing?

To be continued.