The Light of Life series
We have been considering worship as it is related to Moses, the man and servant of God. Today, I want to reflect on the opposite of worship. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, to despise is to feel a strong dislike for someone or something because you think that that person or thing is bad or has no value.
Think of Worship or Weeping in this Way
God created man to worship Him because anything else would be idolatry. If any man does not worship God, he will worship something else. Jesus taught the principle of mandatory worship in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." This principle is not just about wealth but anything other than God.
Therefore, those who do not worship God despise, hate Him, and put something in His place. Paul teaches the same in Romans 3:10-18. Here are essential highlights. "As it is written, There is none righteous, not even one ...there is none who seeks for God ...all have turned aside, together they have become useless ...there is none who does good, there is not even one ...There is no fear of God before their eyes." All despise God.
When reading passages like Matthew or Romans, our minds go to people's differences, like Mother Theresa and Adolf Hitler—one who served many people in her own peculiar way and another who killed millions. However, our minds think from a human perspective and certainly not from God's point of view.
Six Times Weeping and Teeth Gnashing but Not Worship
Six times in the Gospels, God used the term weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matthew 8:12, 13:41, 22:11-14, 22:11-14, 24:48-51, 25:26-30, and Luke 13:26-28. In each case, Jesus refers to the sons of the kingdom, stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness, guests without wedding clothes, beating fellow slaves, and eating and drinking with drunkards. Also, there is a wicked and lazy slave who referred to his master (God) who reaped where He did not sow and gathered where He scattered no seed. In this way, all men do not know their motives but regard God as worthless and evil. If left unconverted, such men will be cast into outer darkness and placed with the hypocrites. In these passages, Jesus always says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for all non-God worshippers.
All these passages have in common that the people of whom God speaks are religious and think of themselves as in the kingdom of God. They included the nation of Israel and the Church. There are two opposite perspectives; the first from sinful people and the other from an infinite, eternal, righteous, and holy God.
Weeping and Not Worship from a Cultural Perspect
In the 1960s, Hollywood made the movie Love with the Proper Stranger, starring Steve Mcqueen and Natalie Wood. They had a one-night stand and a baby on the way, leaving them in a dilemma. Should they have an abortion or not? They chose no abortion; Natalie wanted to hide her indiscretion by marrying another person, and Steve was reluctant to marry because he wanted his freedom from having a family. It was the sixties and a time of tossing aside the morals of the past.
Morals change from era to era, and as they do, most men go along for the ride. Marriage was once considered sacred in our nation but was abandoned for greater "freedom". In reality, the so-called freedom turned into more venereal diseases, sex addiction, immeasurable emotional damage to women and men, broken homes and children, violence to women, children, and even men, legalized abortion, an ever-rising divorce rate, and selfishness in marriage or just living together.
Where morals drop off the radar, so does the ability to trust. Corruption in every industry, including medicine, has become so widespread that no one is above suspicion. The world has always been a violent place to live, but with Christian principles practiced, learning began to increase, and in the modern era, technology was thought to fix everything. However, between 1900 and 2000, even a rough estimate is that 2.4 billion people lost their lives because someone else took it. What's the answer?
Artificial Goodness is Very Different than Sincere Worship
Good people don't exist on planet Earth. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. It does not matter that people seem good. Church leaders get confused about who's a Christian and who's not, which is why so little accountability exists. Instead of worship being pure as the church is purged of unrepentant sinners, it becomes compromised by mixing sinners and saints, which God hates.
"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you." 2 Corinthians 6:14-=17
When Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth Go into Eternal Overdrive
A day is coming when all the Vanier of fine living will be removed, and all hypocrisy will be seen and felt for what it is - evil. One thing will be certain: either people will worship the true God, or they will eternally weep or gnash their teeth. Those who thought themself to be Christian and in the kingdom will weep tears of sadness, but it won't give them repentance, eternal life, or the New Heaven and Earth. For them, there will only be eternal sadness.
For others, the vile of the most vile, there will be gnashing of teeth. Men in a deteriorating society get to love seeing others suffer. They will gnash their teeth for eternity, hating God and wishing it were him in their place. The great irony is that God did die in the sinner's place of His choosing, not because of any sinner's choice or anyone who deserved His love but because of the grace of His arbitrary and sovereign will.
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