“These people draw near Me with their mouths and honour Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me. Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men.” Matt 15:8 (Amplified)
The writer of Proverbs 30:8-9 said “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.” Another problem that the rich and powerful have is the problem of associates and supposed friends who patronise them only for what they can get from them. They perfect the art of only telling them what they want to hear even if this is wrong. The corridors of power all over the world or wherever influence can be peddled are filled with sycophants whose gods are their bellies.
Our anchor passage shows that the deployment of flattery is in no way restricted to the socio-political arena. It exists within the Church too. What else can you call what many of us who call ourselves Christians do? Every Sunday we mouth platitudes to God, promising Him our utmost only to live the following weeks as if we are total strangers to His grace. What is our motivation? We want blessings from God. We want Him to increase us financially, protect our families, help us get good jobs, give us happy and fulfilled lives etc. To get these things, we are willing to grovel in the hope that we can somehow manage to hoodwink the Omniscient God into giving us what we want. What we term worship is actually flattery from God’s perspective and is useless as far as He is concerned. It is a shame to realise that those times we term ‘wonderful worship’ are in fact a waste of time chiefly because our hearts are not in the right place and the God who sees every heart remains unimpressed and unmoved by our skin-deep platitudes, irrespective of our attempt to melodiously couch them.
The sad reality is that the problem of spiritual sycophancy is not restricted to the generality of Christians, but has also eaten deep into their leaders. The shepherds who are supposed to feed the sheep with the undiluted word of God have made themselves into experts who espouse empty words that are hatched in the deep recesses of their carnal minds. We see leaders increasingly setting aside God’s word in order to please men and where possible line their pockets with their ill-gotten gain. Such people have specialised in calling right things wrong and wrong things right and are increasingly sowing confusion into the minds of those seeking to know God and His ways. They have decided that making heaven is not their primary goal and by virtue of their position and influence are also setting up obstacles for those who want to go.
So, what is the solution? We need to repent so that our sins might be blotted out and the times of refreshing might come. We need to get real in our walk with God as we eschew the spirit of religiosity that is threatening to engulf us. God wants children. Not sycophants. He desires authentic Christians and not empty barrels.
Prayer:
Lord, I do not want to just be going through the motions. I want my relationship with you to be the real thing. Help me to live by your word, for your word will change my heart and give me life. Help me serve you for who you are and not just for what I can get from you in Jesus name. Amen.