MAKING ENEMIES FOR GOD
Alas for you, you scribes and Pharisees, play-actors! You scour sea and land to make a single convert, and then you make him twice as ripe for destruction as you are yourselves. Matt. 23:15, Phillips.
Evangelism is for most Christians what apple pie, motherhood, and the flag are for most Americans. The value of evangelism seems almost unquestioned. Oh, it is true that some evangelism is apparently more successful than others--perhaps because of personalities or planning. But no one should be found opposing it! For to tell people about Christ and to invite them to give their lives to Him should be the goal of every Christian.
Yet that was the apparent goal of the scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus so soundly rebuked in today's text. Intensely eager to gain converts, they covered oceans and continents to find names to add to their list. In the broad outlines, their doctrines seemed correct, too. They spoke out against idolatry, evil associates, and religious indifference. And they advocated Sabbathkeeping, tithing, and a healthful diet.
Though Jesus Himself was an evangelist, He pronounced their work to be worse than effective. It was outright destructive. Their converts, rather than being more likely to be saved, became twice as likely to be lost--even though they had joined the "religion of the true God." How could this be? How could those who set out to make people followers of the true God actually end up making enemies for Him?
The answer may have much in it for us as well. The apostle Paul labels their zeal an ill-informed zeal (Rom. 10:2). For example, they were driven with zeal to see that no one broke the Sabbath. In service of that goal, they composed thousands of detailed commands, requirements, and prohibitions about Sabbathkeeping. But somewhere in all the paperwork they lost the Lord of the Sabbath.
Their converts ended up with lots of information about the Sabbath, but they were converted to an arbitrary view of Sabbathkeeping. Therefore they saw God as an arbitrary God. And those who worship an arbitrary God become arbitrary themselves--which is the activity of Satan.
Salvation is not assured by the quantity of information one has about God but by the accuracy of that information--because false information about God does just exactly what Satan wants it to do: it makes people enemies of God.
Alas for you, you scribes and Pharisees, play-actors! You scour sea and land to make a single convert, and then you make him twice as ripe for destruction as you are yourselves. Matt. 23:15, Phillips.
Evangelism is for most Christians what apple pie, motherhood, and the flag are for most Americans. The value of evangelism seems almost unquestioned. Oh, it is true that some evangelism is apparently more successful than others--perhaps because of personalities or planning. But no one should be found opposing it! For to tell people about Christ and to invite them to give their lives to Him should be the goal of every Christian.
Yet that was the apparent goal of the scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus so soundly rebuked in today's text. Intensely eager to gain converts, they covered oceans and continents to find names to add to their list. In the broad outlines, their doctrines seemed correct, too. They spoke out against idolatry, evil associates, and religious indifference. And they advocated Sabbathkeeping, tithing, and a healthful diet.
Though Jesus Himself was an evangelist, He pronounced their work to be worse than effective. It was outright destructive. Their converts, rather than being more likely to be saved, became twice as likely to be lost--even though they had joined the "religion of the true God." How could this be? How could those who set out to make people followers of the true God actually end up making enemies for Him?
The answer may have much in it for us as well. The apostle Paul labels their zeal an ill-informed zeal (Rom. 10:2). For example, they were driven with zeal to see that no one broke the Sabbath. In service of that goal, they composed thousands of detailed commands, requirements, and prohibitions about Sabbathkeeping. But somewhere in all the paperwork they lost the Lord of the Sabbath.
Their converts ended up with lots of information about the Sabbath, but they were converted to an arbitrary view of Sabbathkeeping. Therefore they saw God as an arbitrary God. And those who worship an arbitrary God become arbitrary themselves--which is the activity of Satan.
Salvation is not assured by the quantity of information one has about God but by the accuracy of that information--because false information about God does just exactly what Satan wants it to do: it makes people enemies of God.
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