Righteousness Aimed at God: Identifying and Destroying Wickedness

• Wickedness Endures Good Intentions

The more I’ve read my Bible, the more God has connected the dots and allowed me to see the broad, overarching themes present throughout the text. This speaks again to the matter of the letter verses the Spirit of the law. The action matters, but not nearly so much as why you’re doing it.

We know that David, despite his faults was described as an earthly benchmark for pursuit of God, the second king of Israel but the first to have his aim properly trained on the Lord. In 1 Samuel 16:1 God says to Samuel,

“How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”

Here God acknowledges that Saul has suffered His rejection in serving himself after his disobedience concerning the Amalekites, and that another man (who proves to be David), has been marked by God for kingship. For all of David’s mistakes and faults we see that his heart remained fully after God. In 1 Kings 11:6 we see that Soloman has begun to build sites of worship for the false gods of his foreign wives,

“So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.”

We don’t see that Solomon turned entirely from worshiping God, but this gives us a discernable contrast – our hearts are to belong fully to God. To offer any portion of our praise or worship to something that is hollow and false is an insult to God and renders whatever we do offer Him as worthless, equal to that which has been squandered on idols.

We see in James 3:11-12 a call and warning against such internal division,

“Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”

This warning comes along with the counsel to tame the tongue and not indulge in double speech, but it carries farther than just that. We cannot heave hearts that are simply good intentioned but must actively and sincerely pursue God.

• Wickedness Endures Ceremony

Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37-38, Mark 12:29-30 and Luke 10:27 that the greatest commandment is to, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind” directly quoting what we’re told is the greatest commandment in Deuteronomy 6:4-9,

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This is something Jews practice today with the Tefillin, literally tying two small boxes containing excerpts from the Torah to their arm and forehead at times of prayer. But to be a “sign on your hand” speaks to this truth and knowledge being apparent in action and deed. To be a “frontlet between your eyes” tells me that love and reverence for the Holy, Living God should rest at the forefront of my mind always. This is something I’ve given a lot of consideration to recently – the relevance and purpose of ritual compared to what I would call organic worship that stems from the heart. I’m certainly not anti-ritual, there are ceremonial aspects of our faith that have huge significance. Marriage, Communion and in some cases, prayer all have a ritualistic or ceremonial element to them. The Old Testament and Levitical laws were full of what seem to be very rigorous steps and actions. But in all this there can be a stumbling block, as there are with so many things man does. The ritual is important because it gives structure and guides worship and praise to be correct before Holy God. We aren’t to be box checkers and people pleasers, doing these things piously for the sake of the act or the acknowledgement we’ll receive because we’ve done them. Anything ceremonial is to be aimed high, to the glorification of the Lord, not at what is earthly, which is the practice itself. This can be a trapping for anyone, but I see it so heavily in those practicing Judaism. While they obviously lack a relationship with Jesus, the cornerstone of salvation as Peter tells us, quoting Isaiah,

1 Peter 2:6-8,

“For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and  stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do”

The Jewish faith is also one that seems heavily bent on ritual, ceremony and works, missing the teachings and more importantly the deity of Christ. Similarly, Catholicism and the Orthodox Churches seem largely bent around the ceremony, to the point that it detracts from the purpose of it all – to love and worship God with all our heart, soul, and mind. 

We see this played out in the many of the healings that Jesus performs. The woman with the discharge of blood (Matthew 9, Mark 5 and Luke 8), the man suffering from leprosy (Matthew 7, Mark 1 and Luke 5), the paralytic who in some accounts we learn was lowered through the roof to reach Jesus (Matthew 9, Mark 2 and Luke 5); none of these people were healed based on ceremonial standing like something the pharisees might have had. It is on the merit of their faith, what was true and honest before God that they were restored.

• Wickedness Cannot Endure God

We see in Mark 12:31-34 what takes place after Jesus has given His initial response to the scribe who posed the question concerning the greatest commandment,

“’The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ And the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

Here the scribe seems to reference (whether intentionally or not on his part, it seems connected by the Spirit), 1 Samuel 15:22,

“And Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”

Jesus tells him that in the knowledge he has shown that he is not far from the kingdom. We know from Jesus’s parables concerning the kingdom: Matthew 13:31-33,

“He put another parable before them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’ He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

Matthew 13:44,

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

And Matthew 13:45,

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

We see with the mustard seed and the leaven that the kingdom of God is as nothing to eyes of the flesh. It is invisible, incomprehensible and yet its effect is profound and can be seen by all. We see by the treasure in the field that its glory can be stumbled upon, realization gifted to us in the Spirit, and with eyes opened it is worth ridding ourselves of all else to obtain. With the pearl we see that unlike the treasure that was found by chance, in our need the kingdom can be sought, but once found, once our eyes are opened and we see the true value of what we’ve been seeking it’s again worth ridding ourselves of all else to have – because while the pursuit of the kingdom may be different, the value of it once found is the same no matter what.

To trace all this backward to today’s text – We see Jesus show us through the scribe that to have this knowledge, to understand the greatest commandment is to be close to the kingdom. To have this wisdom as a sign on your hand and a mark between your eyes is to live in such a way that you do what is right and glorifying to God, not for the praise and recognition of man, not so that you can feel good about yourself or because ritual dictates it, but because the Spirit has filled you and you behave this way without thought, your left hand unaware of what the right is doing, and knowing that God is pleased with your surrender to His majesty , rightness and power.

Pastor Chris’s sermon on the text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Jw30kx-_c