Devotional Guide, Today’s Reading – Monday, March 4, 2019

Theme: THE GOLDEN RULE

Text: “Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” – Isaiah 9:17.

Comment: God Almighty, Jesus Christ and all people of goodwill hate hypocrisy, in that these are pretenders, presenting a good picture of themselves to people whereas their private lives are different. That is the burden of the text for today. Hypocrites are fond of destroying other people so as to be the only “star in the firmament”. (Proverbs 11:9)  They are classical illustrations of the pot calling the kettle black. They say to others, “Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou…” (Isaiah 65:5) But one must first remove the beam in his eye before he could remove the mote in the eye of another person. (Matthew 7:5) But today we find that hypocrisy has become the main item in the diet of some people who claim to be Christ’s representatives or followers. God declared through Jeremiah the prophet, “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” (Jeremiah 7:8-10) The essence of Christianity is for us to do to others what we want them to do for us; anyone who prefers to do evil to his neighbour but hides under the cover of Christianity will get worse punishment. – Luke 12:47,48; Matthew 7:12.

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