Amos 5:21-24 (KJV) Says, "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."
In the above passage of scripture God makes clear how he feels about the rituals offered to him by Israel while they are living lives of hypocrisy. Amos the prophet points out, as he had done in times past, that Israel's sacrifices are disconnected from her faith relationship with God. The people of Israel at this time seemed to have thought that as long as they offered sacrifices and sang praises to God they would be in good standing with him in spite of the fact that they continued with their idolatrous customs. The people are warned that they will be punished for their continued disobedience.
Unfortunately, hypocrisy is not a problem that mankind has overcome with time. If we had statistics on how many Christians attend worship services on a regular basis, listen to a pastor deliver a message, sing praises to God, and then go about the rest of their lives living in disobedience to him, they would be startling. All one has to do to recognize the hypocrisy going on today among Christians is look around. The word Christian by definition means to be Christ-like, and although we will never be perfect, as he is, we should strive daily to be more like him.
Amos makes clear that going through the rituals of worship are in no way pleasing to God as long as we are living lives of hypocrisy. This is not to say that if we sin, which we all do, God is not pleased with our attending church, singing praises to him, and other forms of worship, because he is. When we commit sin, however, it is necessary for us to ask forgiveness from God, and to repent of our sins which means to turn from them. It is when we continue to live our lives in disobedience to God with no desire or intention of changing, and then carry out rituals of faith that there is a disconnect. To profess with our mouths and through worship activities that we love God on Sunday and then live our lives the remainder of the week in disobedience to him is absolute hypocrisy. Gossiping, disrespecting parents, ignoring the poor, pride, boasting, arrogance, and such among Christians is exactly what earned them the reputation of being hypocrites among many non-believers.
Take an honest look at yourself and determine if there is something in your life that doesn't fit who you are as a follower of Jesus Christ. Do you repeatedly disrespect your parents? Do you disregard the poor? Are you arrogant and prideful? Do you gossip or do others things that you know are not pleasing to God with no intention of repenting? It is important to recognize that any behavior not pleasing to God done repeatedly with no desire in our hearts to repent causes a disconnect between our faith and our worship and praise of God. Don't get so busy evaluating others for what you feel they need to repent of that you miss the fact that there is an area in your life that you need to turn away from.
If we truly love God, then we should have the desire in our hearts to demonstrate that love by living our lives in obedience to him. Can you imagine a world where every Christian lived their lives in a manner that demonstrated that they were followers of Jesus Christ? How wonderful it would be if like Jesus, all Christians were humble, forgiving, understanding, merciful, kind, compassionate, and loving. Do you live your everyday life in a manner that is pleasing to God? When you attend worship services on Sunday and sing praises to God is it pleasing to him because it is coming from a place of love and obedience? Or, is it displeasing to him because it is coming from a place of hypocrisy? I urge you to remember that in order for our worship and praise of God to be pleasing and acceptable to him we must be living in obedience to him; otherwise it is mere hypocrisy. Are you walking in obedience to God everyday keeping your faith and worship of God connected? Or are you living like a hypocrite with a disconnect between your faith and your worship activities?
If you have a prayer request and would like me to pray for you, leave me a message and I will be more than happy to do so. May God bless you.
