January 25th, 2025
Happy Saturday! Let’s prayerfully read & reflect on Malachi chapter 2, giving special attention to verse 17.
“ You have wearied the Lord with your words.
Yet you ask, ‘How have we wearied him?’
When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and he is delighted with them, or elsewhere is the God of justice?”
What saddened & wearied God’s heart about His people:
The people of Malachi’s day were practicing moral relativism – i.e - the idea that they are no objective universal moral truth or the idea moral judgments are truth or false only relative to some particular standpoint & there are no moral absolutes. Notice God was wearied with this type of faith with no commitment to His Word
Is this common of our day? Sadly, the false idea that there is no absolute truth and the rise of a secular mindset that embraces the idea – ‘what is true or false are based on culture.’
Is there absolute truth?
Moral and spiritual truth isn’t so much a concept as it is a person. It isn’t so much something we believe as it is someone we relate to. Moral and spiritual truth has flesh. And, thus, truth is not just conceptual; it is intrinsically relational. Truth is a person!
To develop God-honoring convictions is to relate intimately to Jesus, the One who is truth. Each day in our daily walk we have the opportunity to reflect the certainty and hope of His Word as we hold tight to our convictions concerning truth; the strength to do so, however, comes from holding tightly to Jesus the One who is truth!
Take a few moments to consider in your heart the amazing, incredible, wonderful truth that we have been brought into a relationship with the One of whom all these things are true! How does it make you feel to realize that you have the privilege to know, to love, and to be loved by, such a Savior, such a friend?
Complete this prayer in your own words:
“Lord Jesus, as I think about the incredible privilege of having a relationship with You – the Holy One, the All-Powerful One, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the One who has loved me so sacrificially—my heart is filled with ______________________________________________. (For Example: gratitude, love, joy, praise, peace, awe, or wonder.) Thank you so very much for loving me and giving me your Word that I might know and follow you. In your name, I pray, Amen.”
“ You have wearied the Lord with your words.
Yet you ask, ‘How have we wearied him?’
When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and he is delighted with them, or elsewhere is the God of justice?”
What saddened & wearied God’s heart about His people:
- They were speaking false narratives – “Everyone who does what is evil is ok in the Lord’s sight”
- “The Lord delights in the one who does what is evil.”
- They were asking for God’s justice to be towards other people.
The people of Malachi’s day were practicing moral relativism – i.e - the idea that they are no objective universal moral truth or the idea moral judgments are truth or false only relative to some particular standpoint & there are no moral absolutes. Notice God was wearied with this type of faith with no commitment to His Word
Is this common of our day? Sadly, the false idea that there is no absolute truth and the rise of a secular mindset that embraces the idea – ‘what is true or false are based on culture.’
Is there absolute truth?
- Jesus said in – “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life….” John 17:17; 14: 6
- Truth is what corresponds to the character of God revealed in His Word, clearly defining what is truth or false.
Moral and spiritual truth isn’t so much a concept as it is a person. It isn’t so much something we believe as it is someone we relate to. Moral and spiritual truth has flesh. And, thus, truth is not just conceptual; it is intrinsically relational. Truth is a person!
To develop God-honoring convictions is to relate intimately to Jesus, the One who is truth. Each day in our daily walk we have the opportunity to reflect the certainty and hope of His Word as we hold tight to our convictions concerning truth; the strength to do so, however, comes from holding tightly to Jesus the One who is truth!
Take a few moments to consider in your heart the amazing, incredible, wonderful truth that we have been brought into a relationship with the One of whom all these things are true! How does it make you feel to realize that you have the privilege to know, to love, and to be loved by, such a Savior, such a friend?
Complete this prayer in your own words:
“Lord Jesus, as I think about the incredible privilege of having a relationship with You – the Holy One, the All-Powerful One, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the One who has loved me so sacrificially—my heart is filled with ______________________________________________. (For Example: gratitude, love, joy, praise, peace, awe, or wonder.) Thank you so very much for loving me and giving me your Word that I might know and follow you. In your name, I pray, Amen.”
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