THE PRICE OF FAITHFULNESS TO THE WORD

If we desire to live for Christ, we will be out of step with the rest of the world. The world will even hate the Light that we represent (John 3:19-20). They will also hate and persecute us (John 15:18-20).

The Prophets of Israel serve as examples. Preaching the Word of God made them anathema to their culture, even to the “pious” Pharisees, about whom Jesus charged:

·       “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.” (Matthew 23:29-31 ESV)

The world’s hatred of the true Prophets was easy to understand. Jerusalem was besieged by Babylonia and its King Nebuchadnezzar. However, the Word of God to Jeremiah was understandably weakening the resolve of the people to resist. This was because he had prophesied the fall of Jerusalem because of the sins of Judah. Therefore, King Zedekiah angrily had him imprisoned, saying:

·       “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye.  And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the LORD. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?” (Jeremiah 32:3-5)

In the eyes of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was the worst kind of traitor and was accused of being in league with the Babylonian horde.

Jeremiah might have been an extreme example. However, we too are prophets and ambassadors of our Lord (2 Corinthians 5:20). We will be hated to such an extent that people will believe that they are doing the right thing even as they put us to death:

·       “I [Jesus] have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. (John 16:1-2)

To truly serve the Lord, we have to forsake the hope of being people-pleasers. To please people is to compromise the Word of God (James 4:4) and to be a friend of the world (1 John 2:15). This is why Jesus had warned us that our commitment to our Savior must not be rivaled by anything else, even our commitment to family:

·       “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24; 10:37; Luke 14:26)

Jeremiah and the Prophets could have easily found many reasons to demote the Word of God:

·       They will not listen to me. I need to tone down the message so that they will listen, or

·       I have to stay relevant so that they will continue to listen to the Word, or

·       Preaching the unadulterated Word of God will just make them more angry and incline them to commit more sin and rebel all the more, or

·       I will lose respect and influence.

The forces behind compromise take many forms. They often lead us to assume that we know better than God’s Word. Such reasoning is also a violation of the First and greatest Command:

·       And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)

There was only one measure or test of the Prophets’ love for God – their fidelity to the Word of God – and it still is the same today (John 14:21-24; 15:7-14).