20230528 Malachi 2:1-9 The Worship Disputation, part 2 - Truth
Truth is the correspondence between a statement, belief, or proposition and objective reality. In theory, we want truth. Knowing truth will help us relate to God well and flourish in the world he created. In practice, we are rebellious and reject truth. Our sinful nature struggles to submit to truth that opposes our will. We are manipulative and exploit truth to control others. We have been hurt by Christians or people convinced they were acting in the truth. Handling truth comes with this tension. Truth exists, but we are limited creatures.
The pursuits of truth in the Enlightenment and Postmodernity highlight this tension. In the 18th century, the Enlightenment pursued truth. Thinkers sought to establish a rational and objective understanding of truth. They were right to believe that truth exists, and that we can know it. They were wrong to overestimate mankind’s objectivity in handling the truth. In the 20th century, Postmodernism offers a more accurate portrayal of human beings. We are subjective. We are irrational at times and conditioned by our upbringing and social context. Postmodernism fails when it denies absolute truth.
We must believe, pursue, and celebrate absolute truth. Meanwhile, we cannot overestimate our ability to be objective. When we hold this tension, we can relate to the truth healthily. Our pursuit of truth will lead to humility, wisdom, peace, and mercy. We will become more like God.
Paul writes in 1 Cor 13:2 “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, … but have not love, I am nothing.” Then in 1 Cor 13:6, “[love] rejoices with the truth.” We love truth, and remain humble and loving. This is our tension.
God reveals truth for us to know him and have a relationship with him. As we pervert his truth, we alienate ourselves from him. Lies lead to feelings of shame, despair, sadness, and loneliness. Lies destroy our relationships. Since our first parents in the garden, we distort, disbelieve, and disobey the truth.
Mal 2:1-9 invites us to turn from lies to the truth to be promoters of the truth. The goal is that we would know harmony with God and those around us.
In the New Covenant, God calls specific people to lead and teach. 1 Pet 2:5, 9 also teaches that the responsibilities of the priests fall on all Christians. Peter says in 1 Pet 2:5, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In 1 Pet 2:9, he continues, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We offer worship and we proclaim the excellencies of our savior, God.
Mal 2:4-7 applies to us. We want to love the truth and protect the truth from distortion. Possessing the truth means that we live in peace and uprightness. In a world full of lies, violence, abuse, and suffering, we offer truth that shines in the darkness.
These are absolute truths. Their denial leads to severe consequences.
(1) God is the Holy creator and ruler over the universe.
(2) We have all rebelled against God, the moral lawgiver. This is sin and separates us from God. Beyond death, this separation is Hell. It is eternal torment (Matt 25:46) and everlasting destruction (2 Thess 1:9). We are eternal beings. The consequences of our actions follow us even beyond death.
(3) Jesus was and is fully God, and fully human. He died so that those who repent from their sin and trust in him can enjoy eternal life today. We can know that we are never alone. God loves us, accepts us, and forgives us. This changes everything. We know we will enjoy God forever. We can forgive horrific things because God forgives us everything. Mal 2:7 calls the priests, messengers of the Lord. That is what we are. We are to speak the truth and live according to the truth. 1 Tim 3:15 calls the church “… a pillar and buttress of the truth.”
Teaching the good news of Jesus brings the forgiveness of sins, peace, comfort, humility, praise, and flourishing. It is the truth the world needs.
In Mal 2:1-3, God pronounces a curse against the priests. By their unfaithfulness in their roles as teachers, the priests are giving the Lord a bad name. Malachi portrays the Lord spreading dung on their faces. This punishment is strange. The priests failed in their calling. They rendered themselves unclean and unfit for their role. Before offering an animal as a sacrifice, the priests were to remove the dung from the sanctuary. They were to burn it outside (cf. Exod. 29:14; Lev. 4:11–12). Because the priests offered contaminated sacrifices, they too were contaminated. They became unworthy of being in God’s sanctuary.[i]
I had my first encounter with a false teacher when I was six years old. I was in first grade, and there was a group of fifth graders that would let me spend time with them, so I felt so special. One of them had a wart on his finger. He showed it to me and said that if I ever touched it, I would die 15 days later. Then he said: “Touch it,” and …I did. Then he repeated that I would die in 15 days. I was so scared. The first few days, I was counting down the days. Then, I forgot to. Then, I lost track of the days. Finally, many days later, I realized that the 15 days were long passed, and I was still alive! This kid used the fact that he was older and so this status that age gave him in my elementary school world to lie to me. Which led to me being quite distressed, to the point that close to 30 years later, I still remember it! This kind of thing does not just happen in elementary schools.
People use religious offices and the authority that comes with it to deceive people. One of the big themes of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was indulgences. To raise money, the Catholic church sold indulgences. If you bought a piece of paper called an indulgence, your loved one would spend less time in Purgatory. Purgatory is a place where Catholics believe they need to pay for their sins after death before being fit for heaven. A saying about indulgences is “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
People trusted their religious leaders and gave them the money. It was a power-play, manipulation, and a scheme to enrich the church. At its core, the doctrine of indulgences turns the good news of the gospel into bad news. It goes from Christ having fully achieved salvation to us needing to add to what Christ did with money. Some forms of indulgences are still practiced in the Catholic church today. It is another gospel. Paul wrote in Gal 1:8, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” The words “let him be accursed” means to be separate from God for eternity. Paul pronounces the worst punishment for the offense of false teaching. Those who intentionally teach lies in God's name will bear the fruit of their rebellion forever if they do not repent. The distortion of God’s Word still happens today. Prosperity preachers deceive the vulnerable. Some connect following Jesus with political affiliations. Others impose their own view of love on the Bible. The god they promote no longer takes sin seriously.
These distortions are all so severe. They hinder the invitation to receive eternal life. We all get things wrong. People who are born-again are filled with the Holy Spirit. They desire to worship the true God and are eager to seek and promote the truth. This is our mission.
As we promote truth we must not forget to love. It is important to think about the Bible correctly. It is even more important to apply the Bible. It is important to teach the truth. We must also deeply care for people as people. We value truth. We also allow people to disagree, ask questions, and explore in a safe environment. We cannot use truth as a weapon. In conflict, it is possible to disengage emotionally and relationally and present cold facts. We may win a debate and alienate everyone around us. Often, it is more important to be loved than to be right. Accurate theology is not a sign of Christian maturity. Loving people well, is. God calls us to promote truth, we are to do this relationally.
The Gospel is our Focus. We need to prioritize the gospel over all things. God reconciled us to himself, through Christ’s work for us on the cross. Once we believe this, we must align all areas of our lives to the truth. We do not find our worth in anything other than Christ. Our worth is not in our achievements, titles, degree, or relatives, but in being a child of God. We do not treat others based on what they bring to us, money, or personality, but through grace. We are quick to confess our sins and forgive those of others. We respond to contempt with kindness. We live on the basis that all fall short of the glory of God. The wage of sin is death for all. Jesus made a way for all who trust in him. All need the gospel. This is what we share.
The pandemic was a painful period of “fake news.” Christians are not immune to promoting lies that they believe are true. Stay clear of controversy. When in doubt, remain silent. Fake news and controversy harm our Christian witness. It harms our credibility. As people of truth, we must be wise with information. God commissioned us to be truth-tellers. We must be faithful to his word and ambassadors of the message of reconciliation.
Conclusion
God has given us his truth to live in a relationship with him. Our text presents the ideal for priests. They were to hold the truth, promote the truth, and turn the wicked away from evil. The opposite happened. They distorted the truth. They lived depraved lies. They led others astray. We are priests in the New Covenant. We are mouthpieces for the truth.
Unfortunately, we often pervert his truth and there are consequences. Distorting truth leads to immorality and judgment. If there is no God, there is no morality, there are no consequences.
We proclaim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He reveals the message that matches reality. His way joins mercy, justice, and love perfectly on the cross. In him, we enjoy eternal life. This is the truth we cherish, live by, and share, for the glory of God!
[i] Elizabeth Achtemeier, Nahum–Malachi (Atlanta, GA: John Knox, 1986), 180.
The pursuits of truth in the Enlightenment and Postmodernity highlight this tension. In the 18th century, the Enlightenment pursued truth. Thinkers sought to establish a rational and objective understanding of truth. They were right to believe that truth exists, and that we can know it. They were wrong to overestimate mankind’s objectivity in handling the truth. In the 20th century, Postmodernism offers a more accurate portrayal of human beings. We are subjective. We are irrational at times and conditioned by our upbringing and social context. Postmodernism fails when it denies absolute truth.
We must believe, pursue, and celebrate absolute truth. Meanwhile, we cannot overestimate our ability to be objective. When we hold this tension, we can relate to the truth healthily. Our pursuit of truth will lead to humility, wisdom, peace, and mercy. We will become more like God.
Paul writes in 1 Cor 13:2 “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, … but have not love, I am nothing.” Then in 1 Cor 13:6, “[love] rejoices with the truth.” We love truth, and remain humble and loving. This is our tension.
God reveals truth for us to know him and have a relationship with him. As we pervert his truth, we alienate ourselves from him. Lies lead to feelings of shame, despair, sadness, and loneliness. Lies destroy our relationships. Since our first parents in the garden, we distort, disbelieve, and disobey the truth.
Mal 2:1-9 invites us to turn from lies to the truth to be promoters of the truth. The goal is that we would know harmony with God and those around us.
Mal 2:4-7 God gives us Truth to Flourish
Mal 2:4-7 teaches that the Lord established a covenant with Levi. It was a covenant of life, peace, and reverence. He walked in peace and uprightness. Levi held true instruction in his mouth. People sought him for instruction, and he turned many from iniquity. The “covenant with Levi” sums up the teaching of Lev 8, Num 25, and Deut 33. Lev 8 describes the priests’ duties. In Num 25:12-13, the Lord calls his covenant with the priests, a covenant of peace. Through sacrifices, the priests made atonement for the people. They kept the peace between a holy and just God and a sinful people. In Deut 33:10, Moses said of the tribe of Levi, “They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law; they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.” The duty of the priests consists of offering sacrifices and teaching God’s word. The role of the priests in Israel was to keep God’s truth. They were to live according to this truth. They were to teach God’s people that they too might abide in this truth and thrive in all of life.In the New Covenant, God calls specific people to lead and teach. 1 Pet 2:5, 9 also teaches that the responsibilities of the priests fall on all Christians. Peter says in 1 Pet 2:5, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In 1 Pet 2:9, he continues, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We offer worship and we proclaim the excellencies of our savior, God.
Mal 2:4-7 applies to us. We want to love the truth and protect the truth from distortion. Possessing the truth means that we live in peace and uprightness. In a world full of lies, violence, abuse, and suffering, we offer truth that shines in the darkness.
These are absolute truths. Their denial leads to severe consequences.
(1) God is the Holy creator and ruler over the universe.
(2) We have all rebelled against God, the moral lawgiver. This is sin and separates us from God. Beyond death, this separation is Hell. It is eternal torment (Matt 25:46) and everlasting destruction (2 Thess 1:9). We are eternal beings. The consequences of our actions follow us even beyond death.
(3) Jesus was and is fully God, and fully human. He died so that those who repent from their sin and trust in him can enjoy eternal life today. We can know that we are never alone. God loves us, accepts us, and forgives us. This changes everything. We know we will enjoy God forever. We can forgive horrific things because God forgives us everything. Mal 2:7 calls the priests, messengers of the Lord. That is what we are. We are to speak the truth and live according to the truth. 1 Tim 3:15 calls the church “… a pillar and buttress of the truth.”
Teaching the good news of Jesus brings the forgiveness of sins, peace, comfort, humility, praise, and flourishing. It is the truth the world needs.
Mal 2:1-3, 8-9 Perverting God’s Truth leads to Bad Behavior and Punishment
Mal 2:6 says of the priests that no wrong was to be found on their lips. He walked with God in peace and righteousness and guided others away from iniquity. This is what the priests were supposed to do. Mal 2:8-9 describes what they did. They turned aside from the way. They showed partiality in their instruction. Those who listened to them stumbled. The consequence of bad teaching is immoral behavior and punishment.In Mal 2:1-3, God pronounces a curse against the priests. By their unfaithfulness in their roles as teachers, the priests are giving the Lord a bad name. Malachi portrays the Lord spreading dung on their faces. This punishment is strange. The priests failed in their calling. They rendered themselves unclean and unfit for their role. Before offering an animal as a sacrifice, the priests were to remove the dung from the sanctuary. They were to burn it outside (cf. Exod. 29:14; Lev. 4:11–12). Because the priests offered contaminated sacrifices, they too were contaminated. They became unworthy of being in God’s sanctuary.[i]
I had my first encounter with a false teacher when I was six years old. I was in first grade, and there was a group of fifth graders that would let me spend time with them, so I felt so special. One of them had a wart on his finger. He showed it to me and said that if I ever touched it, I would die 15 days later. Then he said: “Touch it,” and …I did. Then he repeated that I would die in 15 days. I was so scared. The first few days, I was counting down the days. Then, I forgot to. Then, I lost track of the days. Finally, many days later, I realized that the 15 days were long passed, and I was still alive! This kid used the fact that he was older and so this status that age gave him in my elementary school world to lie to me. Which led to me being quite distressed, to the point that close to 30 years later, I still remember it! This kind of thing does not just happen in elementary schools.
People use religious offices and the authority that comes with it to deceive people. One of the big themes of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was indulgences. To raise money, the Catholic church sold indulgences. If you bought a piece of paper called an indulgence, your loved one would spend less time in Purgatory. Purgatory is a place where Catholics believe they need to pay for their sins after death before being fit for heaven. A saying about indulgences is “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
People trusted their religious leaders and gave them the money. It was a power-play, manipulation, and a scheme to enrich the church. At its core, the doctrine of indulgences turns the good news of the gospel into bad news. It goes from Christ having fully achieved salvation to us needing to add to what Christ did with money. Some forms of indulgences are still practiced in the Catholic church today. It is another gospel. Paul wrote in Gal 1:8, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” The words “let him be accursed” means to be separate from God for eternity. Paul pronounces the worst punishment for the offense of false teaching. Those who intentionally teach lies in God's name will bear the fruit of their rebellion forever if they do not repent. The distortion of God’s Word still happens today. Prosperity preachers deceive the vulnerable. Some connect following Jesus with political affiliations. Others impose their own view of love on the Bible. The god they promote no longer takes sin seriously.
These distortions are all so severe. They hinder the invitation to receive eternal life. We all get things wrong. People who are born-again are filled with the Holy Spirit. They desire to worship the true God and are eager to seek and promote the truth. This is our mission.
Malachi 2:4-7 Invitation to being promoters of truth.
Malachi invites us to turn to the truth and promote it. This text is part of Malachi’s second disputation. It calls the priest to repent, and this invitation applies to us. As the priests of the New Covenant, we are promoters of truth.As we promote truth we must not forget to love. It is important to think about the Bible correctly. It is even more important to apply the Bible. It is important to teach the truth. We must also deeply care for people as people. We value truth. We also allow people to disagree, ask questions, and explore in a safe environment. We cannot use truth as a weapon. In conflict, it is possible to disengage emotionally and relationally and present cold facts. We may win a debate and alienate everyone around us. Often, it is more important to be loved than to be right. Accurate theology is not a sign of Christian maturity. Loving people well, is. God calls us to promote truth, we are to do this relationally.
The Gospel is our Focus. We need to prioritize the gospel over all things. God reconciled us to himself, through Christ’s work for us on the cross. Once we believe this, we must align all areas of our lives to the truth. We do not find our worth in anything other than Christ. Our worth is not in our achievements, titles, degree, or relatives, but in being a child of God. We do not treat others based on what they bring to us, money, or personality, but through grace. We are quick to confess our sins and forgive those of others. We respond to contempt with kindness. We live on the basis that all fall short of the glory of God. The wage of sin is death for all. Jesus made a way for all who trust in him. All need the gospel. This is what we share.
The pandemic was a painful period of “fake news.” Christians are not immune to promoting lies that they believe are true. Stay clear of controversy. When in doubt, remain silent. Fake news and controversy harm our Christian witness. It harms our credibility. As people of truth, we must be wise with information. God commissioned us to be truth-tellers. We must be faithful to his word and ambassadors of the message of reconciliation.
Conclusion
God has given us his truth to live in a relationship with him. Our text presents the ideal for priests. They were to hold the truth, promote the truth, and turn the wicked away from evil. The opposite happened. They distorted the truth. They lived depraved lies. They led others astray. We are priests in the New Covenant. We are mouthpieces for the truth.
Unfortunately, we often pervert his truth and there are consequences. Distorting truth leads to immorality and judgment. If there is no God, there is no morality, there are no consequences.
We proclaim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He reveals the message that matches reality. His way joins mercy, justice, and love perfectly on the cross. In him, we enjoy eternal life. This is the truth we cherish, live by, and share, for the glory of God!
[i] Elizabeth Achtemeier, Nahum–Malachi (Atlanta, GA: John Knox, 1986), 180.
Comments
Post a Comment