To Encourage You

Matthew 5:23-24 “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

If you attend a church somewhere, why do you go?  Jesus spoke often about the motives behind our actions. It’s the motives that give context to our actions, and if the motives aren’t right, the actions can be misguided and not worth much in the end.  This is what is spoken about in the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 13, also known as “the Love Chapter.”  1 Corinthians 13 says such startling things as “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 

You see, motives are everything in religion.  It’s this same message that is being addressed by Jesus in the words from Matthew 5 above.  I’ve heard people say things to this effect: that one of the reasons they attend church is to be forgiven.  They know they are sinners (aren’t we all), and they feel guilty about it.  The idea is if they just keep attending church, taking communion, giving their offerings, and singing some songs, God will forgive them. They go to church so that they’ll feel better.  It’s a way to deal with guilt.  However, in the words of Jesus above, He is telling us that if that’s why we are attending a worship service, we should just turn around and leave.  He’s telling us that if there is unconfessed sin in our lives, such as a broken relationship with another person, especially if it is our actions and attitudes that are at the root of that conflict, a worship service, in and of itself, won’t be of much help to us.  He is telling us that the time to deal with sin is before we attend a worship service, not while we attend it. 

You see, in order for worship to be true worship, we must worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).  It’s not a place to practice hypocrisy, i.e., to knowingly live in sin but try to pass ourselves off as righteous in front of those with whom we worship.  Jesus is telling us to be brutally honest with ourselves.  If there is sin in our lives, ask His forgiveness right here and now. Don’t wait, and especially don’t ignore it as you enter a house of worship.  If we have sinned against someone, don’t ignore it. Don’t go to a worship service and pretend to honor God, while at the same time you’re sinning against a brother, for Jesus has also said “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).