Today’s Devotion 

Topic: Guilty Of The Things We Preach?

Text: Romans 2: 21-24

21 You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?  22 You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?  24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written. AMEN.

In our daily lives, we seem to be always surrounded by Christians, yet sin equally seems to abound even the more. It has now become extremely difficult for today’s believer to share Christ with an unbeliever because both of them are yoked together and one can hardly tell the difference between the two.

In fact, majority of us who profess to be Christians and point fingers to condemn others do the very negative things like fornication, bribery and corruption, cheating, etc, which we preach against.

In John 8, the Bible gives account of a woman who was brought into the temple by the Teachers of the Law.  Her charge was that she had committed adultery and the mob were at the verge of stoning her to death just as Moses commanded. However Jesus said to them, “if anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”…At this, they all went away one after the other. Obviously guilty of some skeletons of a kind hiding somewhere in their cupboards.

Just like the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, we also have on daily basis condemned people on certain sins that rate in our minds as unpardonable. Yet sin is of equal value; including the ‘pardonable’ ones we commit in the cover of darkness.

To this point, it seems rather fair to start asking ourselves, “are we guilty of the things we preach against?” If so, then Romans 2: 24 explains that we add to the reason why God’s name is blasphemed by unbelievers.

So then, what must we do differently than ignoring our disobedience and simply accusing others of same? We need to:

1. Acknowledge our shortcomings, repent and confess them to the Lord for pardon.

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us through the word so that we resist the temptations that easily beset us. He should help us walk in absolute obedience as is expected of the children of light.

3. Continue to share our faith and the gospel with others teaching them to allow the word of God transform them just as we are doing. Reminding them that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God to all who will shun evil, remains eternal life.

4. Always remember to be mindful of the plank in our own eyes impeding our vision and causing our bodies to stumble and fall, before trying to remove the speck in the eyes of others. (Matthew 7: 5).  

Meditate on this word child of God and begin to pray right now. Ask God to grace you with the humility not only to accept your own faults, but to desist from condemning others who have sinned against God and against you. As a matter of fact, You can by the word of God teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3: 16-17). But you do not have to condemn others.

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