“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” (James 1:26NIV)
Who is James talking to in our opening text? He is talking to those who consider themselves to be religious. And do we have people who think of themselves as religious? We do! Yes, we have people who see themselves as men and women who know God, love God, worship God and have God’s ears.
Now is anything wrong with seeing ourselves in that light? Well, James does not say that something is wrong with seeing ourselves as those who know God, who know where He lives and who also know what He eats. But he tells us that this view of ourselves ought to have some serious impact on what comes out of our mouths. Otherwise, we are simply lying to ourselves about knowing God and worshiping Him. That means our religion is worthless.
Sadly, we have many today who think of themselves as God’s deputies but who exercise no control whatsoever over what comes out of their mouths. These ones say anything that comes to their minds, without weighing it to see whether it is good or bad or whether it honours God or dishonours Him. And if anyone tries to correct them or to show them that they are supposed to be talking like those who know God and not like little devils, they will not be slow at all to abuse or curse the person as well.
Now perhaps you are like that. You can abuse or curse anyone and anything. You can even get the dead to be stirred up in their graves through your abusive words. Yet you call yourself a Christian or a child of God. The word of God is coming to you now and telling you that you are self-deceived. Truly, you may think that you know God and are serving Him.
But you are simply a joker. Your religion is worthless. In other words, what you are doing in your worship of God makes no sense to Him at all. And that is because your so-called relationship with Him has not yet changed you.See, when a man comes into a relationship with God, the first obvious change that will be seen in his life has to do with the way he talks. He will no longer want to speak carelessly or loosely. Instead, he will want to speak love and grace.
Yes, this may initially prove difficult for him to do, especially if he has been a loose talker all his life. But he will begin to make effort by the power of the Spirit of God in him to speak differently. Yes, he will begin to make effort to show through his words that he is no longer a sinner. And if he continues like that and does not stop, it will not be long before he realises that loose taking is no longer an option for him.
So, if you are still loose in the way you talk, if nothing appears to be too corrupt or unclean for you to say with your mouth, you are either saying that you don’t know God at all or have utterly forgotten that you have been saved by Him. And it does not matter what religious title or titles you carry around on your head, your religion is worthless – it is simply a joke.If you, then, do not want your religion to remain a joke, you have to begin to put a tight rein on your tongue.
That means you have to now begin to teach your tongue not to say just anything that comes to your mind. Yes, impure, corrupt and hurtful things may still want to come out of your mouth. But you must not allow them to come out of it, for your tongue is meant to speak only those things that glorify God and also edify men, not things that dishonour them.
My prayer is that you will daily find in God all the strength you need to keep these words in mind and to also begin to put them to work in your life and affairs. Amen.
We have been looking at a number of things on the relevance of taking certain instructions given to us in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12, very seriously. These instructions have to do with watching over one another, so that we do not go astray or fall short of the grace of God. This, of course, has led us to looking at various things that we need to pay attention to, if we will be able to freely help one another stay in the truth and not become a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve. And the last thing we looked at on this note had to do with relating to one another only on the basis of the word of God, not on the basis of human traditions or superstitions, not on the basis of mysticism and not on the basis of our feelings, idiosyncrasies or experiences.
Our traditions may be good. And our experiences may be okay to teach others. But we must use these things in relating to people only to the degree that they agree with the word of God. Wherever they do not agree with the word of God, we must discard them in our dealings with people. Otherwise, we may end up judging those that God has not judged or condemning those that He has not condemned.Now there is another thing we need to pay attention to in relating to one another, if we will be able to truly watch over one another and keep ourselves from going astray. This has to do with recognizing those boundaries that we must not cross in people’s lives. There are boundaries we must not cross in our dealings with people. These boundaries may not be obvious. But they are there. And in relating to people, we must recognize and respect them. Otherwise, we may not be able to help them in any serious way or end up becoming a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve.
One of such boundaries is people’s right to privacy. The Lord Jesus has called us to live in freedom. So, we must allow every child of God to enjoy their freedom, as long as they are not using it as cover up for evil (Galatians 5:13; 1Peter 2:16). The point I am making is that we can only help people to do degree that they permit us. So, we must know when and where people want us in their lives and when and where they do not want us in their lives. We must not attempt to impose ourselves on anyone. We must not be close to people beyond want they want or what they permit. If someone has set certain boundaries in their lives that they do not want you to cross, then, you must respect their right to privacy.
In 2Corinthians, chapter 6, Paul says this from verse 11: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange – I speak as to my children – open wide your hearts also.” (2Corinthians 6:11-13NIV)Paul is counseling the Corinthian brethren here to remove the boundaries they have placed around their lives, so that he and his ministry companions could freely affect them.
According to him, they are not withholding their affection from these Corinthians. Instead, they have freely opened wide their hearts to them, so that they could share their lives with them. So, it is only fair that the Corinthians do likewise. And that is what Paul is placing his fingers on here. But you can see that Paul is not trying to impose himself on these brethren. Yes, he was the one that God used in starting their church. And he had spiritual authority over them and could command them to do those things that are right for them to do. Yet he would not impose himself on them.
Instead, he wanted them to realize the need for them to consciously open wide their hearts to them, so that they may freely and fully affect them in their walk of faith. And that was because he respected their right to privacy.In like manner, it is important that we respect people’s right to privacy. It is important that we respect their right and freedom to choose what they want and do not want, to choose how we help them and the extent to which we help them in their faith. So, if someone does not want us to help them in certain areas of their lives, we have to respect their decision and stay away from those areas of their lives that they do not want us to touch.
Yes, we may know exactly what they need in those areas of their lives. But if they will not permit us to help them, we will have to let them be until God opens their eyes to see that they need us to help them in those areas of their lives.Look at how Paul relates to Philemon in his letter, as an example of the need for us to learn to respect the rights of others to make certain decisions for themselves: “Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul – an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus – that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I am sending him – who is my very heart – back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel.
But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.” (Philemon 8-14NIV)The things Paul says here are in favour of a man called Onesimus, who used to be a slave of Philemon. The man ran away from his master and was meant to be severely punished for doing so. But as God would have it, he met Paul at some point and become born again. Not only did he become born again, he also grew in his faith so much so that he became a very dear son in the faith to Paul. Naturally, Paul would want to keep this young man to himself. But he knew it would not be right for him to do so, since he knew his master, Philemon. The right thing for him to do would be to send him back to his master for reconciliation. Yes, he could just write a letter to his master, using his spiritual authority over him to command him to let Onesimus remain with him. But he knew that would be an abuse of his spiritual authority and his relationship with Philemon. He knew that if he did that, he would be trampling on the man’s rights.
So, he would not do so but would instead appeal to the love of Christ in Philemon. And that is what we see in this passage.Now is it the will of God for people to keep slaves? No! But during that era, God did not contend with humanity about making slaves of themselves, though He forbade His own people, the Israelites, from making slaves of their own brethren. Why did God not contend with people on this matter? The reason was the hardness of their hearts. God knew that unless people were recreated and changed from within, telling them not to make slaves of themselves could only fall on deaf ears. But as the gospel prevailed in the world, slavery diminished in acceptance.
And today, slavery is no longer socially or politically acceptable in any part of the world.In any case, at that time, there was no law against having slaves. So, Paul would not trample on Philemon’s right to own slaves. But since Philemon was a child of God, he appealed to the love of God in him in dealing with Onesimus, his run-away slave. As I pointed out already, Paul could have commanded this man to forgive Philemon and to also release him to him as a helper. But he respected his right and wanted him to function on the basis of the love of God in his heart. So, he appealed to him to welcome back Onesimus and reconcile with him, out of love for Christ. That way, all of them could continue to freely fellowship together as members of the same family, the family of God.You can see that even though Paul was an apostle, he respected the right of Philemon to make his own decision about the matter of Onesimus.
We too should learn to respect people’s rights to make decisions about their lives. We should not treat them as morons and keep trampling on their rights to decide for themselves, just because we have spiritual authority over them. Instead, we should respect their freedom to make choices that they believe are right for them. And we should respect their right to privacy.Yes, we may know what is right for others to do in certain situations of their lives. But we must still respect their rights to choose what to do for themselves. We can encourage them. We can warn them. We can open their eyes to see the will of God for them. But as long as they have come of age, we must learn to respect their right to choose for themselves whatever they want in life. That way, they will not do anything because they are forced or manipulated or threatened to do it but because they want to do it.
What I am saying, all along, is that if someone does not want us to help them in certain areas in their walk with God, we just have to let them be. We see our Lord Jesus dealing with us in this same manner. He does not cross whatever boundaries we set for Him in our lives. Look at what is written to us in the bible about this: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20NIV)The Lord is not speaking to unbelievers here but to believers.
Interestingly, often, this Scripture is used to address unbelievers to give Jesus a chance in their lives. And that is not a bad thing. But in the context, the words were originally said to believers and not to unbelievers. These believers were shutting the Lord Jesus out of certain areas of their lives. So, He had to tell them to open the door for Him to come into those areas of their lives and fellowship with them there.Well, He is saying the same thing to us today. He is telling us to allow Him in every area of our lives. Yes, He lives in us by His Spirit. But He may be living in us as guest, a visitor. There are, in fact, many believers who think of the Spirit of God as a guest in their lives.
They do not see Him as the owner of their lives. But He is the owner of our lives. And we must treat Him as such.However, He will not force Himself on us. So, the right thing for us to do is to willingly offer ourselves to Him. The word God tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable, which is our logical act of worship.
In other words, the willing offering of our bodies to God is the right thing for us to do. We have to realize that it is the right thing for us to do and do it.Well, we see Jesus telling the brethren in Laodicea that He is standing at the door and knocking and that if anyone hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in and fellowship with that person and they with Him. But what if the person does not hear the Lord knocking at all? He won’t force His way in. Instead, He will keep knocking until the person hears and opens the door. Or what if the person hears and does not open the door for the Lord? He won’t still force His way in.
He will just let the person be until he realizes the need for him to open the door for his Lord to come in and fellowship with him.So, if you do not want the Lord to address you about your marriage, for instance, He will let you be. But you can be sure that you will be a failure in that area of your life. If you don’t want Him to address you about your finances, He will let you be. Or if you are stingy and selfish and do not want Him to talk about these things, what is He going to do? He will let you be. Even if it is your health that you don’t want Him to touch, He will let you be. He will not force Himself on you. If He had been forcing Himself on all men, then, all men would have been born again already.Truly, the Lord wants to fellowship with us in every area of our lives. He does not want us to live alone in any area of our lives. That, in fact, is what God has called us to. He has called us into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 1:9).
He has called us to live with Him and for Him to live with us. He does not want us to walk through life alone. Instead, He wants us to have His companionship every moment of our lives.However, we may not have His companionship every moment of our lives. That, of course, will not be because it is unavailable. Rather, it will be because we are not permitting Him in our lives. That is how the Lord functions. That is how we also must function. We must learn to knock the door of people’s lives instead of badging in. Jesus knocks before coming into any area of our lives.
Why does He do that? That is respect. He is showing that He respects our rights to choose for ourselves. He may not respect us for the choices we have made. But He respects our right to choose whatever we want to choose for ourselves. We may choose badly. We may choose what will destroy us. But since He has given us the right to making choices for ourselves in certain areas of life, He knows that He has to respect our right to make those choices.Just think about this: God has given us the right to make our own choices in certain areas of our lives. We, of course, do not have absolute rights to choose in life. There are things that are chosen for us by God or by people. But there are areas of life in which we have been given the right to choose for ourselves. And God is not taking that right away from us. He is not trampling on it at all. He will always respect it. He will not contend with us in using it. But He is always concerned that we choose right.
How painful it must have been for Him, then, to watch us use the right He has given to us to hurt ourselves and others badly? Well, God will continue to come to us, asking us to open the door of every area of our lives for Him, so that He can come in and lead us to choose right. He will show us what is right and what is wrong and tell us to choose what is right. He will show us the difference between life and death and also show us to choose life. He will show us the difference between health and death, between wealth and poverty, and also lead us to choose that which is right for us. In like manner, as I have been saying, we must respect people’s privacy and also their right to choose whatever they want for themselves. It may hurt us badly that people are making the wrong choices.
But we still have to respect their right to choose for themselves, if they will not permit us to help them choose right. A man once told me that he had resolved to maintain a private life and to shut those of us who were his brethren out of his home. And I told him right there that I would respect his choice, even though I knew it was a terrible one. I also went on to inform the brethren to respect his privacy and not visit him uninvited. Now was I happy to do that? No! But that’s what the Lord Himself would do.
So, if people do not want you to help them in certain areas of their lives, you have to let them be. That way, neither they nor God will be able to hold you responsible, if they should fall away from the grace of God. Let us pray.
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It gives me great delight welcome you to another week of the month of May 2025 and to also welcome you to our 13th year church anniversary. My prayer is that God will continue to build us up to be all that He wants us to be by the power of His Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is indeed a thing of joy to know that we have been meeting as an assembly in this town for thirteen full years. And we ought to be thankful to God for all that He has done in us, for us and through us in these thirteen years. We also ought to be thankful to Him for all that He is still going to do among us, for us and through us in the year we are just starting as a church. My prayer is that His good works will never cease in our midst, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
But then, as we are celebrating God’s goodness to us today as an assembly, there is something very important that we need to pay attention to. And that what He thinks of us as an assembly. If we ask around, people will have all kinds of things to say about our assembly. And what they say may be pleasant to the ear or not pleasant at all. But we cannot judge how well we are doing as a church on the basis of what people think or say about us.
We cannot even judge how well we are doing on the basis of what we think of ourselves. The only true judgment of how we are doing lies with God. And we all will do well to pray that He will reveal what He thinks about us to us, so that we can give ourselves to functioning accordingly.
As we see in the book of Revelation, the Lord says this about the church in Laodicea:“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” (Rev 3:17-18NIV)
Did you see that? This church thought that it was rich spiritually and in need of nothing. But the Lord said that it was wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. So, the only one who knows the true condition of every church is the Lord Himself. And unless He tells us our condition, we may think we are doing well, when we are actually failing, or think that we are doing poorly, when we are actually doing well in God’s sight.
Therefore, as I said before, let us all give ourselves to praying wholeheartedly that God will reveal to us what He thinks about our assembly, so that we will not be acting on a reputation that we do not have before God and lose our place and our reward in His kingdom. I rejoice with all of us again, as we celebrate another year of God’s faithfulness to us as a church. My prayer is that God will cause us stand firm in all His will for us and also continually cause His favour and mercy to rest upon us. Amen.Happy celebration.
“Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.” (Rev 16:13-14NIV)
What we see in our opening text is a little part of the revelation of Jesus given to John the Apostle. And from what we see in the revelation, a time will come when the rulers of this world will come together to battle against the Lord. And does that not sound ridiculous? Does it not sound ridiculous that people would think of waging war against God?
Well, it does sound ridiculous that people would think of doing that. But it is going to happen, just as our Lord made it known to John. And the reason it is going to happen is that certain demons will move them to do so when the time is ripe. As we see in our opening text, these evil spirits will go out and gather the world rulers of the time to wage war against God.
Now how will these demons go about doing that? We are not told this in obvious terms in the text. But it is clear that they will do so by speaking to the minds of these rulers and urging them to do what they want. We have a similar example in the bible story of the death of King Ahab.
As the account goes, it was an unclean spirit that became a lying spirit in the mouths of the prophets of this king, just to deceive and lure him to his death. And interestingly, this lying spirit succeeded in moving about four hundred prophets to tell the same lie on the same day and at the same time. (Cf. 1Kings 22; 2Chro 18)
So, demonic activities are real. And that many all around the world who do not believe in them does not change the fact that they are real and happening everyday. What we are saying is that there are times that people act the way they act because certain demons are moving or driving them.For instance, why are beer parlous, night parties and brothels (houses of prostitution) often filled with all kinds of people, high and low, rich and poor, educated and uneducated? The reason is that there are demons that gather them to fill these places.
Also, why do we sometimes witness horrible riots, mob attacks and genocides? The reason is that there are demons that gather and drive people to do these things. And just as they are able to move a crowd to do dangerous and unthinkable things, they are also able to move individuals to do stupid, silly and destructive things to themselves and to others.
So, when someone or people are acting crazy and doing destructive things to themselves or to others, you should know that some demons may be responsible for their actions. You should have compassion on them, then, and pray for their deliverance, instead of condemning them to hell. Otherwise, they may go from bad to worse and make the world more unbearable for all of us to live in.
Also, we need to be utterly given to the word of God and prayer, so that we too will not be tools of demonic activities. Remember that, as devoted as David was to God, Satan was still able to use him to take certain foolish steps that brought trouble on his nation. Remember also that even though Judas Iscariot did everything with the Lord Jesus, as a disciple and friend, Satan still succeeded in using him to hand Him over to His enemies. (Cf. 1Chro 21; John 13:2&27)
So, any of us can be moved, driven and used by the devil or any of his demons to do unthinkable and destructive things, if we will not give ourselves to living by the word of God and praying to frustrate satanic activities where we are. My prayer is that you will never again be available as a tool to be used by the devil or any of his demons, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Lawal, J. O. (2025, May 04). He can rid your life of bitterness. (Vol. 14, No. 1). From Pastor’s Desk.
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the month of May 2025. My prayer is that God will rid your life of everything that has to do with bitterness by the power of His Spirit. Amen.
Now I offered that prayer for you because God is indeed able to rid your life of all forms of bitter experiences, regardless of what might be responsible for them. All you need is to call out to Him in prayer and also rid your own heart of any unwillingness to forgive yourself and others that might have hurt you. And He will end all your experience of bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
For instance, Joseph had all kinds of bitter experiences in life. And he had these experiences not because he was a bad person but because people, including his own blood brothers, were used by the devil to afflict him. Yet because he trusted in God and would not hold grudges against anybody, God showed him mercy, ended all his bitter experiences and lifted him up to greatness. (Cf. Gen 37-50)
Also, we have Naomi who, with Ruth, came back from the land of Moab empty. And she was so unhappy about her situation that she told people not to call her Naomi, which means ‘pleasant’, again but to call her ‘Mara’, which means ‘bitter’. Why? The reason was that she though it was God that afflicted her family. But God was not the one that afflicted her family. They were the ones that left the land of Judah in a time of famine without divine revelations. (Cf. Ruth 1)
Nevertheless, even though she and her husband were the reason their lives were made bitter, God had mercy on her and used Ruth, a foreigner, to comfort her in ways beyond her imaginations. In fact, people’s testimony was that God used Ruth to comfort her in ways that she could not have been comforted, even if she had seven sons. (Cf. Ruth 4:15)
What about Jabez? His own life too was filled with bitterness because his mother proclaimed bitterness on him at birth. Yet God freed him from every experience of bitterness and pain that he was having, when he cried out to Him. (Cf. 1Chro 4:9-10)
Now this same God can do the same things or even better things for you, if you too will cry out to Him. Yes, He can rid your life of bitterness, if you will cry out to Him for help. So, as we begin this new month, call out to God to end whatever experience of bitterness you are having in life. And He will answer you and fill your heart with overflowing joy.
Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 30). We can change God’s mind (Vol. 7, No. 51). Youth for Jesus.
“Two years later, when Absalom’s sheepshearers were at Baal Hazor near the border of Ephraim, he invited all the king’s sons to come there. Absalom went to the king and said, Your servant has had shearers come. Will the king and his officials please join me?”” (2Sam 13:23-24NIV)
Why did Absalom invite all the king’s sons to a feast on the occasion mentioned in our opening bible text? Was it because he really cared about them and wanted to share some love with them? No! Rather, it was to have an opportunity to murder Amnon, their eldest brother.
Now why did he want to murder Amnon? It was because he had raped their sister, Tamar. But the matter had already been settled in some way by David their father. Why, then, did Absalom still want to punish Amnon with death for what he did? It was because he did not have a forgiving spirit like David.
Truly, it does not seem like David and his officials handled that rape case well. That is because we are not told in the account that Amnon was given any serious punishment for what he did, if he was punished at all. In any case, everyone else in some way believed that the matter had been laid to rest and should be treated as such. So, Absalom also should have treated it accordingly.
But he did not. Instead, he pretended that he too had dropped the matter and moved on. But two years later, as we see in our opening text, Absalom struck. He killed his brother when no one was suspecting. And that was the beginning of his own end as well.
Now what lesson is there in this for us? First, it is that we should take the word of God that tells us to do only good and not evil to people seriously. Otherwise, we may end up hurting people that will never forgive us for hurting them, regardless of what we or others do to appease them. And they will never forgive us because they do not have the fear of God in them at all or because they do not believe in God’s message of forgiveness. Therefore, they may go to any extent to punish us for our sins against them. And unless God saves us from them, we will not be safe at all, even two or twenty years after we have hurt them. (Cf. Psalm 34:11-14; 1Pet 3:10-11)
Another lesson for us in this is that if we refuse to forgive those who have hurt us, as God has told us to do, we are giving room for all kinds of dangerous and murderous thoughts to fill our hearts. The reason murderous thoughts entered Absalom’s heart and filled it was that he refused to forgive his brother, Amnon. And those murderous thoughts did not leave him until the murder of his brother was executed. (Cf. Eph 5:32)
In like manner, if we too refuse to forgive others, all sorts of dangerous thoughts may fill our hearts, as I pointed out before. And what these thoughts will do to us, even years after we have been hurt and have refused to be healed by God, may surprise us. Then we may find ourselves becoming worse than those who hurt us.
So, if you have been hurt in any way, forgive those who are involved and allow God to heal you. That way, you will not end up becoming worse than the evil you are trying to punish.
Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 27). We can change God’s mind (Vol. 12, No. 52). From Pastor’s Desk.
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the transition week between the months of April and May 2025. And I pray that God will set you right wherever you may be wrong in life, so that all His good purpose for you may be accomplished without delay. Amen.
One of the things we learn in the bible is that true repentance can change God’s mind. But we do have Scriptures that tell us that God does not change His mind. In other words, once He determines to do something, nothing will be able to stop Him from doing it. What, then, are we going to do about such Scriptures? Are we going to set them aside as useless? Never! We cannot set aside any Scripture as useless. That is because no Scripture is useless. On the contrary, every Scripture is of God and is useful for our edification. (Cf. Num 23:19; 1Sam 15:29; 2Tim 3:16-17)
However, even though we truly have Scriptures that tell us that God does not change His mind, we also have other Scriptures that show us things that can make God change His mind. And one of those things that can make Him change His mind, as I pointed out before, is genuine repentance. For instance, God once sent Prophet Elijah to Ahab to judge him and his household for murdering Naboth, an innocent man. God said that He was going to wipe out all this king’s descendants and give their flesh to dogs and birds to eat. (Cf. 2Kings 21:17-24)
Now, as we see in the bible, Ahab was a very wicked and proud king. Besides, the woman he married, Jezebel, was even more wicked than him. And together they both brought a rule of terror on the people of God. Yet when this man heard the word of God’s judgment, he did not arrest Elijah, abuse him or keep malice with him. He did not even argue with him over the matter. Instead, he humbled himself, tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. (Cf. 1Kings 21:17-27)
Why did Ahab act like that? it was because he knew that he was wrong. He knew that there was no excuse for the killing of an innocent man. So, God was right to judge him as his actions deserved. All he could hope for, then, was mercy. And the only way for him to receive God’s mercy was to humble himself and acknowledge his sins. Otherwise, the judgment passed on him and his household was bound to come to pass.
Now did God, on this occasion, show Ahab mercy and forgive him or not? He did. The bible says, “Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”” (1Kings 21:28-29NIV)
Did you see that? Because of Ahab’s acknowledgement of his sins, God postponed the disaster He wanted to bring on him and his household to the days of his sons. In other words, God changed His mind for a moment. And if Ahab’s sons too had forsaken his sins and humbled themselves before the Lord, the judgment pronounced on them would not have happened in their days. In fact, God may even have totally cancelled His plans of judging their household. But they did not turn away from the sins of their father. So, they were all eventually wiped out as God had promised. (Cf. 2Kings 9)
Well, the point we are making is that we can change God’s mind through genuine repentance. So, if God is meant to punish you for something wrong you are doing, you can make Him change His mind by genuinely repenting of it. But if you continue to walk in pride towards Him and refuse to acknowledge your sins or errors, your punishment may come sooner than you expect. And who knows how bad that would be for you. So, humble yourself now and repent of your sins. And may you find in you the strength to do so. Amen.
I want to further share with you concerning the instructions that we are given in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12, which have to do with watching over one another. We are told to see to it that none of us develops a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. We are also told to see to it that none of us falls short of the grace of God. And these things have led us to looking at series of things that we need to pay attention to, if we will be able to help one another stay in the truth.
Now the last of the things we have been dealing with has to do with relating to one another only on the basis of the word of God. As I pointed out, we must not relate to one another as believers outside the confines of the word of God. There are things the word of God commands us to do. And they are the things we must command ourselves to do. There are things His word encourages us to do. And these are the things we must encourage ourselves to do. In like manner, there are things the word of God commands us not to do. And these are the things we must command ourselves not to do. Then there are things the word of God discourages us from doing. These also are the things we must discourage ourselves from doing.
But then, there are also things that God has not spoken for or spoken against. Paul refers to such things as disputable matters. And we have rules given to us in Scriptures in handling such matters. We have these rules given to us so that we will not find ourselves judging or condemning our brethren for things God has not condemned them for.
Now I want to press this further by talking to us on dealing with one another according to human traditions. Remember what we are saying is that we must relate to one another only on the basis of the word of God and not on the basis of our feelings, experiences, idiosyncrasies or traditions. We may have feelings that are good. We may have experiences that people may learn from. And we may have traditions that are good. But these things must be consistent with the word of God. Otherwise, we must discard them as useless. We must not impose them on anybody or demand that anyone act on their basis.
For instance, in Saint Mark’s gospel, chapter 7, we are told this:
“The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”” (Mark 7:1-5NIV)
We see here that the religious leaders of the Jews were judging the disciples of the Lord based on the traditions of the land, not based on the word of God. Truly, the things that are said here about their traditions are not bad. Washing your hands before eating is not bad. Washing your cups, pitchers and other things you use for eating is not bad. And taking your bath, having come back from a journey or the market, is not bad.
However, we do not have any command in the word of God that we must wash our hands before we eat or that we must take our bath before we eat or do any other thing. These things are not bad in themselves. But they are not rules given to us for godly living. It will, therefore, be wrong of us to judge anyone on their basis or to conclude that someone is not living to please God on the basis of these things.
Interestingly, even in marriages, husbands and wives can have issues along these lines. They can begin to make on themselves demands that the word of God is not making on them. You, as a husband, may love to always take your bath when you are back from work, for example. And that is a good thing. But your wife may not love that or may not have been raised to function like that. Truly, it will not be a bad idea for her to copy you in doing this. But to insist that she also must do so before you can relate properly to her in your home is to miss it. That is because you are making a demand on her that God is not making on her.
Don’t miss my point here. I am not saying that it is alright for someone to be living a dirty life. If someone has been working for hours and needs to take their bath in order not to irritate their spouse or others around them, they should do the needful. But we must also understand that something like that will not make them godly or ungodly. Yes, I know there is this slogan that says, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” But it is not scriptural to say so. There is nowhere in the bible in which we are told that cleanliness is next to godliness.
To say the fact, cleanliness is not next to godliness. Someone may be dirty in their lifestyle and still be godly. And someone may be clean but ungodly. Lazarus, as we see in the story Jesus told about him and a rich man, was dirty and poor. His body was filled with sores and wounds. Yet when he died, angels came to carry him to paradise. But the rich man that was living a neat life ended up in hell. Did Lazarus go to paradise with his dirty and awful body? No! He went there in his spirit. And as we are told in Scriptures, he would, henceforth, begin to live with a glorified body, a body that sicknesses and diseases could not afflict. (Cf. Luke 16:19-31)
So, we need to watch ourselves as we relate to one another. Otherwise, we may be judging ourselves on the basis of some traditions or superstitions. And this will affect our relationships with one another. It may make us condemn or judge the innocent. It may shut whatever door of opportunity we might have had to help one another stay in the faith. If you cannot properly fellowship with another person because you have placed a barrier of traditions between both of you, that person may not be able to reach you, if they should need your help. And even if you should want to help them, they too may not want your help. The same thing is applicable to you.
Well, when these religious leaders of the Jews began to judge the disciples of the Lord based on their traditions, He responded. Look at his response from verse 6 of the chapter:
“He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) – then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”” (Mark 7:6-13NIV)
There are three basic things Jesus says here about the religious leaders of the Jews. First, He says that they have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions. Second, He says that they have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe their own traditions. Third, He says that nullify the word of God by their traditions. What is the point of all these? It is that these people took their traditions more seriously than the word of God. So, they were ready to replace the word of God with their traditions, wherever the word of God goes against those traditions.
Nothing, as I said before, was wrong with the tradition of cleanliness that these religious leaders of the Jews had. And it is not wrong for us too to have such a tradition. It is not wrong to take care of our body and the things we use in eating and drinking. On the contrary, it is good to be hygienic. It helps us to live healthy. But it is wrong for us to place whatever we believe or practise about this above the word of God. And it is wrong for us to make whatever we believe or practise about it a rule of life for anybody.
Rules of life are made for us on the basis of the word of God. I mean that what God says is what determines our rules for living, not human traditions. And in relating to one another we must be careful not to present our traditions as the word of God. Yes, we must be careful not to judge people on the basis of our traditions or superstitions. There are all kinds of superstitions from place to place. For instance, among the Yorubas, it is a taboo to sit and eat at the entrance of a house. And it is indeed not a commendable thing to be eating at the door of a house. But it is not a sin. You can choose to eat wherever you like. It is not a sin. You can even choose to eat at the dumpsite, if you are okay with it. It is not a sin. There is no Scripture that says that it is a sin for anyone to do so.
So, we need to be careful how we judge people. Certain things may not be socially acceptable. It does not mean that those things are wrong or that God is against them. How people dress may not be socially up-to-date. Some will dress and not tuck in their shirts. Some others will dress and not button up. They just want to dress down all the time. Is that a sin? No! I used to attend an assembly in which a cell leader would tell his members that it was a sin for them to dress and not tuck in their shirts. And is that indeed a sin? No!
See, we must respect people’s right to live as free people. As long as they are not using their freedom as a cover up for evil, we must respect their right to live as free people. Paul also shares some things with us along this line in his letter to the Colossians. From verse 16 of chapter 2, he says:
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” (Colossians 2:16NIV)
We dealt with this in our last lesson. We said whatever people believe about what they eat and how they handle days, times and seasons is between them and God. And no one should judge anyone on the basis of how they handle these things. Then, from verse 17, Paul goes on to say this:
“Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” (Colossians 2:18-19NIV)
Paul is speaking here about mysticism. He is referring to a situation in which people try to impose certain spiritual experiences they claim to have had on God’s people. These ones often want to use these spiritual experiences they have had as their rule for judging God’s people or for determining how God’s people are to live their lives. They will talk about the visions or dreams they have had or talk about certain angelic visitations they have received.
Now the word of God is not against visions, dreams or angelic manifestations. These are some of the means that God uses in revealing His will to His people. However, any vision or dream we see must be consistent with the word of God. If it is not consistent with His word, then, we must reject it. We must never place our visions or dreams above the word of God or use them to replace the word of God.
What about angelic visitations? They are real. But it is not every time that people have angelic visitations that they are of God. In 2Corinthians 11 Paul tells us that Satan often masquerade as an angel of light and that his servants also do likewise. So, demons can masquerade as angels of light.
How, then, do we know when an angelic visitation is of God or not? First, a true angel of God will never demand that you worship him. He will always tell you to worship God. Second, a true angelic visitation will only seek to glorify God. Therefore, no angel will tell you to do anything that is contrary to what is written in the word of God. (Cf. Revelation 19:9-10; Revelation 22:8-9)
Unfortunately, there are those who have judged God’s people as going to hell on the strength of certain angelic visitations they had. I listened to a woman who went into details of the things some angels showed her about why Christians may go to hell. According to her, certain Christian ladies were taken to hell because they used earrings, wore trousers or used hair attachments when they were here on earth. And that is an example of what Paul is saying to the Colossians. He is speaking of those who will go into great detail about their visions, dreams or angelic visitations, saying things that are not consistent with Scriptures. What do we do about such things? We throw them away.
You cannot tell me that someone is going to hell because they wear trousers or earrings. On what strength? On the strength on your dreams? Is that what the word of God says? If that is not what the word of God says, I must reject what you are saying. We have prophets who do similar things. They give prophecies that are inconsistent with Scriptures. And they expect everyone to follow them. If you, then, will not follow them, they may take you as a rebel or as an unbeliever. Such things are wrong.
Well, Paul says that you should not allow anyone to judge or condemn you on such basis. In fact, he goes on to tell us that people who do such things have lost connection with the Lord of the church, that is, Christ. Also, he tells us that they are unspiritual. They may appear spiritual. But they are not. So, we should not take them seriously.
Furthermore, Paul says from verse 20 of the chapter:
“Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” (Colossians 2:20-23NIV)
This is similar to what I shared with you in Mark 7 on relating to human traditions. There are traditions and superstitions of men that say, “Do not touch! Do not handle! Do not taste!” But as long as they are not consistent with the word of God, we do not take them seriously. Yes, there are times we need to exercise caution or discretion in relating to the traditions and superstitions of people in some places. Yet, as long as their traditions are against the word of God, you too must be against them.
But then, if a tradition is not against the word of God and accepting it will make it easier for you to relate to those who practise it, you may want to accept it for their sake. The word of God tells us to be at peace with everyone. And if respecting the tradition of those with whom we live or work or study is not contrary to the will of God, we can show some respect for it. That may help us in living in peace with them. But where their tradition is contrary to the word of God, we must reject it.
What we are saying is that we must not allow our lives to be judged or run on the basis of mere human commands or superstitions. It is sad that we have church leaders that impose things on their brethren that God has not imposed on them. They tell them to dress in certain ways. They force them to fast for some number of days. They tell them what colours they must not use. They don’t want them to use perfumes or lotions. They just want them to treat their body harshly.
These things, however, are not commands of God. If you do not want to use lotions or perfumes, that is fine. But there is nowhere we are commanded in God’s word not to use them. Also, there is nowhere we are commanded in the word of God to fast for any number of days in a week. Is something wrong with fasting? No! But we have no specific command from God on when any of us should fast. Yet we find church leaders imposing these things on God’s people. And that is replacing the word of God with our own traditions.
Sadly, as Paul shows us, all these rules have no power in restraining sensual indulgence. They have no power in changing people’s lives or in stopping people from sinning. Only the word of God has the power to change people’s lives. Only His word has the power to make us the people wants us to be. So, in relating to one another, we must do so only on the basis of the word of God. Otherwise, we will be wrong.
Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Witnessing greater works of God
Recommended Citation
Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 23). Truth can offend (Vol. 7, No. 49). Youth For Jesus.
“Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?”” (John 6:61NIV)
Who were grumbling about what Jesus said? His disciples! Why were they grumbling about what He said? It was because it offended them. But what He told them was the truth. How come they were offended by it?
Well, the truth is that truth has the tendency of offending people. And it will surely offend them, if they do not want to change their ways and walk in the will of God for their lives. Those disciples of the Lord did not want to change their ways and walk fully in the will of God for their lives. So, they allowed the truth that the Lord Jesus had told them to offend them. That, of course, made them to stop following Him and to also lose their places in His kingdom. What a shame! (Cf. John 6:66)
Also, we are told of King Asa and how he allowed himself to be offended by the truth God had told him through one of His prophets. This king, as we are shown in Scriptures, loved God and gave himself to living to please Him. He so loved God that he removed his grandmother from her position as queen mother because of her idolatry (2Chro 15:16).
But then, at some point during his reign, he made a mistake. He trusted in military strength instead of God to defeat an army that had come against him. So, God sent a prophet to tell him that he had done a foolish thing and would start to really be at war. And what should he have done in response to that? He should have humbled himself, repented of his error and asked God for forgiveness. But he did not do that at all. Instead, He punished the man God sent to him and also oppressed some of the people in the land. (Cf. 2Chro 16:1-10)
Well, because of that, the word of God that Asa would continue to be at war came to pass. Truly, no enemy nation came against him from that moment till the end of his reign. However, he was afflicted with a foot disease. And because he was yet offended by the truth God had spoken to him, he would not even ask Him for mercy and healing. Instead, he entrusted himself to the royal physicians. So, he was at war with that foot disease until it took his life. What a shame! (Cf. 2Chro 16:11-14)
Now what is all this teaching us? It is that we need to always have the right attitude towards the truth. Truth may be bitter. Truth may be offensive. Truth may be hurting. But it is the only thing that can make us free, heal our lives and lift us up from where we are to where God wants us to be.
Therefore, however painful or offensive the truth God is bringing to us in any area of our lives may be, it will be in our interest to embrace it and allow it to accomplish His will in us. Otherwise, we will sooner or later learn the hard way that we cannot do anything against the truth – truth will also prevail.
Lawal, J. O. (2025, April 20). Witnessing greater works of God (Vol. 12, No. 51). From Pastor’s Desk.
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours abundantly from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the Easter Sunday of this year, year 2025. My prayer is that all that Jesus accomplished for us through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension will not go to waste in our lives. Amen.
As we begin this new week, I want to encourage you with these words of our Lord Jesus: “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” (John 1:50NIV) Who did Jesus say this to? He said it to Nathaniel, one of the men that later became His apostles. Why did He say it to him? Well, as the account goes, Philip had told Nathaniel that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah they had been waiting for and that he should come and see him. But Nathaniel did not think that anything good could come out of Nazareth. Nevertheless, he went with Philip to see Jesus. (Cf. John 1:44-46)
Now when this man met Jesus, and He told him by revelation where he had been that day, he immediately believed and said, “You are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” And because he appreciated the little revelation Jesus gave him, the Lord told him that he would see greater things. That means the way to witness greater things from the hand of God is to appreciate whatever He shows us or does for us, however little it may seem.
Truly, there is nothing God does for us or shows to us that is simple or little. But even if what He has done for us or shown to us appear to be little, our attitude towards it is what will determine whether He will show us greater things or not. When God first appeared to Moses, He only gave him two signs. And those two signs were actually profound. But he had to appreciate them and take God seriously on account of them for him to witness greater signs and miracles. And he did witness greater signs, miracles and wonders from God, signs, miracles and wonders too numerous to count.
The same thing was applicable to Nathaniel and all the apostles of the Lord Jesus. They all went on to see things greater than what they were first shown when they met Him. But that would not have happened, if they had not appreciated Him for the things He first did for them or showed to them.
So, if we want to see greater works of God, if we want to see miracles, signs and wonders that are greater than whatever God has done for us in the past or is doing for us now, we must show Him that we appreciate what He is doing for us, however small or little it may see. Otherwise, we will only keep hearing great testimonies of His goodness to others but never have any great testimony of our own to share.
