My heart is steadfast, O God!
I will sing and make melody with all my being!
That's what I plan to do at church this morning. Worship him with all my being.
Romans 2:17-24
Paul is addressing Jews in this brief passage from a book primarily addressed to Gentiles. He is warning against laziness and arrogance due to ancestral heritage. This tends to lead to the problem of saying one thing and doing another.
I'm not a Jew or even remotely close to being one. As far as I know I have no "Jewishness" in my ancestry. Does this mean that this passage has nothing to say to me?
I think not.
First of all, I have been raised in the church. I have been "Christian" for as long as I can remember. I put Christian in quote because I was not born one. You can't be born a Christian. You can, however, just as I was, be born into a Christian household that can be very influential in your upbringing. This kind of upbringing has its pros and cons.
One of the negatives is what we are discussing here. A person can be raised in a Christian home and come out of it with the idea that they can do no wrong and that everything that they say and believe is uncontestable. It's a very dangerous place to be, spiritually as well as mentally. And it is what Paul is warning against here in this passage.
Out of this attitude comes people who preach about immorality but wind up flashing young women in college dormitories (I worked with one such "pastor" once). Out of this attitude comes people who preach about "health, wealth, and prosperity" while pilfering funds from the churches offerings (Jim Bakker and Robert Tilton).
It's easy to pick on the big names. But, truth be told, this is a problem that we all must deal with. We must "practice what we preach" if we are to have any witness with the lost world. I have to struggle with these attitudes. I feel very guilty when what I do doesn't line up with what I say. And I lift up prayers of confession and repentance.
We're never going to be perfect, not until we are face-to-face with our Savior. But what we can do while in these "jars of clay" is to be aware of our flaws and failures and take care of them as soon as we become aware of them. When we deny that they even exist is when we become a laughingstock in the eyes of the world.
Grace and peace, friends.