Category: Devotion of the Day

Living A Double Life

They feared the Lord, and served their own Gods.
II Kings 17:33

The Lord was the God of their lips but not of their lives. And their number is legion today who give God the allegiance of lip but not life. Our Lord described them, quoting from Isaiah: “The people draweth nigh me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” He asked, “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Paul writes of those “who profess that they know God; but in works they deny him.”

It is an awful hypocrisy that declares with the lips what it denies with the life. We lie when we profess to fear the Lord at 11 A. M. on Sunday after we have served our own gods all week. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.” Worship and work must bear the same witness. It is what we serve that tells the tale. The shame of too many church members is that they lead a double life; they fear the Lord and serve their own gods.

We Gain As We Give

He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which giveth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
II Corinthians 9:6

God “giveth liberally.” He is a generous God, and His children should never be misers. He loves a cheerful giver and “the liberal soul shall be made fat.”

Mary used expensive ointment when she anointed Jesus, not a cut-rate bargain. It was Judas, who pilfered the treasury, who grumbled about Mary’s generosity. God does not smile upon extravagance, but He does reward the bountiful sower. His servants are worthy of their hire, and Paul, though he sought nothing for himself, ever exhorted the saints to be liberal in their giving. When Christians turn into tightwads and try to do God’s work as cheaply as possible they get cheap results. God will not honor a stingy testimony. The church that puts on a bargain revival cheats itself. God’s work is in no danger of bankruptcy when His people are hilarious in their giving and hospitable to His servants.

God hates a false economy that is out to reduce a budget instead of to receive a blessing. We reap as we show here, just as anywhere else.