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Keeping Your Confession Without Hypocrisy |
| Faith's Confession of God's Word |
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| Wise
Words Bring Health |
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| Jesus
On 'Faith's Confession' |
| Matthew 15:7-9
(the words of Jesus in red) |
| 7 "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honour Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." |
Jesus quotes from Isaiah 29:13 in charging the Pharisees with setting aside God's Word in their traditions. Jesus dismisses their worship because their hearts were not aligned with their lips. Living faith - true worship - requires that the mouth and the heart be together to avoid Jesus' charge of hypocrisy. Praises and true faith come from lips that draw from the depths of the heart. As a living principle, faith's confession is not a ritual recitation of slogans; otherwise, it is only acting out a human tradition and, as Jesus notes potentially hypocritical. Just as we are called to genuine praise and worship, not as pretenders or ritual performers, so let our confessing of God's promises be without hypocrisy. Let us speak what God's Holy Spirit has truly birthed in our hearts, thereby bringing us to faithfully speak with our lips. |
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