Making it Personal
Upon further study of this passage, we learn that God will one day judge our secret thoughts. We call them secret but they are not secret at all. Not only does God know our thoughts, but many around us also eventually find out.
We also see that teachers are held to a higher standard. If you are going to teach the Word, your life had better match up. Once again, we are all teachers in one way or another. When our lives do not line up with truth, we dishonor God. Can you imagine standing in the presence of God and saying no? Yet we do it all the time. This is disobedience and it dishonors God. It tells the world that we truly do not believe God.
It also gives this world opportunity to blaspheme the living God. The single greatest cause of atheism today is not world tragedy, or disease, or the crimes of man but Christians. The greatest cause is Christians who profess God with their lips and yet deny Him with their lives. It is hard, especially in the world today with leaders lying and living ungodly all around us. We must stand up and be truth livers all the time. It will cost you but stand anyways. When you think you are all spent, stand. When you have nothing left, stand. When all others forsake truth, stand. God will be blessed and in turn, He will bless you. Let us not be hearers of the law only but doers.
Verse 25 teaches us that if we keep the law, there is profit. Not only does the individual profit but also, God is honored. The church profits also because its members are witnessing to this world and purity and order reign in our lives. When we keep not the law, we are counted as uncircumcised. God is not honored with sacrifices but rather He is honored through obedience. Remember, God is not mocked. You might be able to fool others for a while, but God is never
fooled.
The last verse tells us to be circumcised in our hearts in the spirit. God does not want us to follow the law to be man pleasers, but rather to be God pleasers. Why do you minister? Is it for man’s eyes? The praise of God is eternal and the praise of man is temporal. Let us lay up treasures in heaven.