Half-hearted Allegiance
“Rend your hearts, not your
garments.”—Joel 2:13
An
“army” of locusts has come into Judah, devastating the land. The reason for such devastation is the sin of
indifference, of being “neither cold or hot.”
John Piper writes: “The ultimate aim of God in sending the locust horde against
his people is to secure their undivided allegiance: ‘You shall know that I,
Yahweh, am your God, and there is no one else.’ Evidently, the cause of the
locust plague had been the people's half-hearted allegiance. Some of their
affections had gone after things other than God. He was not their all-consuming
love. So he fought against his own people. For few things are more dishonoring
to God and dangerous for us than love to God which is only half-hearted.”
Half-heartedness
is a subtle sin that unlike overt sins —murder, adultery, gluttony, gossiping—it
quietly creeps into our lives, appearing like a “false friend.” The sin of
indifference veils spiritual emptiness. We go to church, attend Bible studies, pray
and tithe, hoping to maintain an appearance of devotion. “We come near to God with our mouths and honor God
with our lips, but our hearts are far from God. Our worship of God is based on
merely human rules that have been taught." Isaiah 29:13 (Grundmeier paraphrase)
We become
experts at hiding our indifference. We tear at our garments, not at our hearts.
We hope that we can mollify God with pretentious, empty confessions.
A.W. Tozer
writes “I have long believed that a man who spurns the Christian faith outright
is more respected before God and the heavenly powers than the man who pretends
to religion but refuses to come under its total domination. The first is an
overt enemy, the second a false friend.” The panacea for indifference is all-consuming
love for Christ.
Prayer: “Lord, let me see your face, let me hear your
voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face lovely.” —Song of Solomon 2:14
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