ISAIAH 1:1-2:22
2 CORINTHIANS 10:1-18
PSALM 52:1-9
PROVERBS 22:26-27
Isaiah 1:11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
Another day where we see a focus on sacrifice and offerings being meaningless when done with the wrong heart. So to is our practice of rights and rituals in our church. You can give of your time and money. You can attend every church service. You can participate in every prayer and liturgical recitation. You can be baptized and take communion. You may think these are things worthy of boasting about. In reality all of this is meaningless if you're doing just because you think it is the right thing to do or a concern for what people might think. If you don't have a heart surrendered to God, it is "detestable" to Him. We should be more concerned about what God thinks that what people think. Even though on the outside we may look good to those around us, to God it's detestable and worthless.
2Corinthians 10:1 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.
Paul recognizes the need to be bold in speaking to the Corinthians about their hearts and motivations being set by the standards of the world. The world today is all about appearances. The standards of the world are about the outward presentation of ourselves. Social media is how we present ourselves. Today I am feeling bold about speaking against that. So often we are more concerned about how many likes we get that we will spend hours on our phones and computers but will spend minimal or no time in our bibles, prayer and meditation on the word. We do less to work on our relationship with God than we do to fake our relationships with millions of people. How can our hearts be right when we go to church when we spend so little time with God outside of church because we are too busy boasting about ourselves to the world. Screen addiction is a real problem in the world today. It's another layer of the stronghold that keeps us from a deep and personal relationship with God. I never saw it as that until today when these verses all connected for me. But every addiction is a stronghold an excuse for not turning to God. Something we can't fight against on our own power.
2Corinthians 10:3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
If we try to fight our strongholds on our own like the world says we should. "Just do it". "Be all you can be". "There is no limit to what you can do." "Believe it and achieve it." It goes on and on. We will always fail. Have you ever tried to break down a stronghold on your own, just by sheer will power? If you have tired then you have failed because there is a spiritual aspect to those things. I am not saying that you can't make the decision to cut screens out of your life and do it. But what will you do with that time that you are gaining. What will you replace it with. As Christians we have "divine power to demolish strongholds" in our lives. We can "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." But we can only do it with the power of Christ who lives in us. We must rely on Him. Replace the things in your life that consume your time and energy with meaningless activity with passionately and boldly pursuing Jesus. Then you will get all kinds of likes from your Father in Heaven. That would be something to boast about.
2Corinthians 10:13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. 14 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. 15 Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, 16 so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. 17 But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
The only things worthy of boasting about are service that God had assigned to us. You can't know what service God has assigned to you unless you are in a relationship with Him. Service to God should have Kingdom value. When we live and serve for the furthering of the gospel and the growth of the Kingdom of God we will have something to boast about.
Psalm 52:1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
Worldly boasting is never pleasing to God. It is evil and a disgrace in the eyes of God. So don't get caught up in the opinions of others. Run from what is evil and cling to what is of God and you will never lack something valuable to boast about.
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