And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it."
Ezekiel 33:32
When I cam upon this passage during my morning Bible reading, I was struck by its relevance to modern Christianity. The speaker in this passage is God Himself, speaking to the prophet Ezekiel. He observes that, although people come to hear what Ezekiel has to say, they do not take seriously Ezekiel's words as being the words of God, or at any rate they do not see the need to obey them.
It reminds me of much of Christendom, which seems to be in search of a "cooler" religious experience, but the effect of their search seems simply to produce something of an odd Christian subculture rather than winsome, loving service to God and people.
When people come to hear a man - or woman - of God speak what is on the mind and heart of God, but not for the sake of obeying God; when their only response is to evaluate how well the person spoke, and to discuss how eloquently he put forth his arguments, it resembles mere religious entertainment. It is as though they look to the speaker primarily to make what they see as an obligatory religious exercise a bit more tolerable; that is all.
Evidently things did not change, even in the early Christian church. James, the brother of the Lord, writing during the first decades of the church's existence, exhorts us:
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, her is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty , and perseveres being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." - James 1:22-25
If we really want to present to the world a credible witness to the reality of Jesus and His gospel, let's drop the emphasis on whose church has a latte bar, or which church has the most kickin' praise band, or whether the pastor has a faux and wears sandals, and attend to the preaching of God's word with the intent of taking it to heart and doing it.
