Month: June 2023

‘I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing.” Psalm 101:2, 3

            When first reading these verses, it seems impossible. How can anyone be blameless? We all know that the only blameless person who ever walked the earth was Jesus Christ. So how can we say that we will walk in our houses with blameless hearts? The answer to that is Who I just mentioned: Jesus Christ. Since He is the only One who was ever blameless, it is only through faith in Him that we will be seen as blameless in God’s eyes.

            This isn’t just talking about being blameless in our deeds, although that’s impossible enough. This says with blameless heart. The very inner core of who we are. Our thoughts. Our feelings. Everything about us is to be blameless. This isn’t just a façade we can put on when we go in public, either. This says in our homes. In every moment of every day, our every thought will be completely pure.

            I’m glad you’re still reading and haven’t given up in frustration. Before we go any further, I want to talk about the irony of David talking about walking in his house with a blameless heart. It is true that it needs to start at home. That’s not what David did, though. He brought sin right into his home and he and his descendants paid for that dearly. Before we enjoy pointing fingers at him too much, how often do we do the same thing? How often do we bring sin right into our homes, into our families? In fact, how many of us are paying the price for parents who did that very thing? And yet God continues to forgive and restore. David’s response to his own sin was to run to God in full repentance, begging for His forgiveness and restoration. Praise God that He’s in the business of making beauty out of ashes!

            Just because we’re sure of His forgiveness doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for blamelessness, though. And the following verse gives us a huge clue of how we can do that. By not setting anything vile before our eyes. What does that mean? Well, there are the obvious things like not watching smut or reading trash. But let’s go a bit further. First, let’s redefine “vile.” What if “vile” means anything that takes our focus off of God? I’m not saying we can never think about anything else. After all, we do have lives to lead. But is God included in every part of our lives? Or is He an afterthought, or only for church and Bible studies? An aspect of the word that is translated “vile” is the idea of being worthless. Maybe our thoughts aren’t evil, but do we spend our time in worthless thoughts? If we work to eliminate all the things, little and big, that take our focus away from God, or tempt us to leave Him out of any part of our lives, we will find that we walk more and more closely with Him, allowing Him to shape and mold us into being a little closer to blameless.  

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42

            The book of Acts gives us a beautiful picture of how the early church operated. Some of the members were the people who walked and talked with Jesus while He was on earth and included those who witnessed His resurrection and saw Him ascend into heaven. But it also included many, many more. In fact, scripture says that more were added to their number daily. Can we say that about our own churches? Do we daily have more people breaking down our doors to join us? Why not? We’re serving the same God. We’re preaching the same gospel. The same Holy Spirit is at work in our midst.

            It’s not God who’s changed in the last 2,000 years. It’s us, His people. So let’s take a look at how the operated. The first aspect of their lives it mentions is the apostles’ teaching. Is that an important part of our lives? Do we strive continually to learn more about God and His word, to spend time under the tutelage of those whom God has gifted to teach us and instruct us? Do we ask God for the discernment of His Spirit to decipher teaching about Him and His word?

            Next we see encouragement to fellowship. To gather together with Christ’s followers. Breaking bread, or eating, together indicates a community that’s more than just a group of people all in the same room. There’s a sharing, a connection between them. The word “fellowship” has an emphasis on the sharing of those things we have in common. It also indicates participation. In other words, we can’t have fellowship if we’re just observers. Both fellowship and eating together indicates a blessed relationship, a sharing of our lives together.

            Added to this is praying together. Prayer in our private lives is essential in our walk with Christ. But God also wants prayer to be a shared and common experience. In fact, communal prayer can be a very powerful weapon against our enemy. But it also draws us closer to one another even as it’s drawing us closer to God.

Going back to the beginning of the verse, we see that they were devoted to these things. The Greek is actually two words, one of which means to join to or adhere to, to spend much time with. Am I so devoted to Christ’s church that I can honestly say I’m adhered to it, that I spend much time with it? For example, do I spend much time with the teachings of God and of His apostles? Am I truly joined with the fellowship of believers? Am I willing to share in the breaking of bread and experience the commonality of fellow believers? Or am I too busy with my schedule, demands on my time? Am I willing to put the church of Christ above earthly concerns? In this age of online church “attendance” and learning from pastors and teachers we’ve never met, may we see that while these may be wonderful blessings, they are not a replacement for the kind of church involvement God is calling us to be a part of. May we strive to be truly devoted to Christ and His church.