David Bahn – Reflections

Isaiah 29:13

The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.

There may be times when lip service is called for, helpful and good. Maybe under duress; perhaps when you must be polite because you work in customer service – after all the customer is always right! But when it comes to our relationship with God lip service is never good or helpful. God sees through mere outward piety and the thin veneer of “look-goodism.”

God will judge those who put on the show of outward righteousness at the expense of true religion and real faith. There will come a time when the mask will be taken off and the hypocrite will be shown for who he is. This is part of Isaiah’s message; he goes on to say:

Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

¹⁵ Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”

But there is another aspect of this truth that is inviting and compelling for those who hear God’s call. When we get beyond lip service to true religion two remarkably good things happen. First of all others are blessed; there is benefit to the people around us – those we love and those we don’t even know – when we take the faith seriously. The prophet Micah says it well:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

When we take that seriously others will be blessed. This is a true benefit of true righteousness.

Secondly, when we take our faith seriously, we discover a deeper joy in life, a more vibrant and fulfilling prayer life, and a fuller sense of purpose and meaning. Jesus came that we may have life in abundance. That abundant life is a life rich and full in prayer, love, service, worship, and even sacrifice for His sake. This is much more than lip service; it is faith that is real and alive and which leads us on an exciting adventure with God.