SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                               1214

“Like One Of Them”

On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. – Obadiah 1:11

God’s Word has several things to say about what and whom we are to be like and not like.

Obadiah references those who arrogantly stood by and watched the people of Israel be ransacked. Although they personally did not attack Israel, they were just like those who did because they stood aloof and did nothing to help.

What about us today? Are we remembering to pray for the people of the Ukraine? How about the people affected by the recent Hurricane Ian? Then there is a battle for the lives of the unborn children that are at stake. Are we standing aloof being more preoccupied with our own affairs while ignoring the needs of others? We can pray, we can vote, we can help: physically, and/or financially. Otherwise, by our indifference we are just like the oppressors.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. – James 2:18

So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. – James 4:17

Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. – Proverbs 21:13

How many of us are like the Scribes and Pharisees having a self-righteous air about us? Do we look down upon those of a lessor social stature? Do we consider ourselves to be ‘superior Christians’? Jesus was scathing in His rebuke of people like this.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So, you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. – Matthew 23:27-28

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. – Luke 18:9-14

Jesus warns us to not be like them.

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. – Matthew 6:5

Then there are those of us who trust more in their education, wits, bank accounts and investments than in God. For these people the things of this world that they trust in have become their idols. They become like them: lifeless and empty.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands…Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. – Psalm 115:4-8

Jesus set an example for us to live by.

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. – John 13:12-17

Examine your Christian Life Walk. Are you like ‘one of them’: the indifferent, the self-righteous, the self-sufficient idolators? By the power of the Holy Spirit’s transformative work in you, may you be transformed by the renewal of your mind, and do not be ‘like them’, rather, be like Christ.