These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Isaiah 29:13.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Where is your heart? Wherever your heart is, there your treasure is. Matthew 6:21.
The question is do you give me lip service or life service? It is a question of the heart.
I said to My people Israel that they paid Me lip service but their hearts were far from Me. Isaiah 29:13. And My Son repeated these words to the Pharisees—the religious leaders of His day. Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6.
Lip service complies with My Word in talk only but does not do it. Just speaking My Words does not make you a doer of My Words. You need the heart and mouth connection. Lip service means that the Word is not in your heart. Life service means you are a doer of the Word. It means the Word is on your lips and in your heart.
Look at your heart—at your intentions and motives for what you think and do. Are you serving Me or yourself? Usually the two coincide for serving Me benefits and blesses you, but when they clash is when your true motive is tested. It is then that your true colors come out. It is then that your heart is revealed to Me.
As for you, son of man, your people are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.’ My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. Ezekiel 33:30-32.
My Son passed this test with flying colors. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed that My Will, and not His, would be done.
Are your interests the top priority in your life or are My interests the top priority in your life? Do you seek only yourself or do you lay down your life for your friends? Are other’s interests just as important to you as your own? Are you willing to step aside to benefit another’s interests rather than pushing them out of the way so that you take the desired object?
If you seek first My Kingdom I promise to provide for all you need. You do not need to worry about your needs being taken care of if My interests have top priority in your life. There is no lack in My Kingdom. You do not need to grab things fearing there will not be enough for you and your neighbor. There is abundance for both of you. But you cannot tap this abundance unless you are a generous and cheerful giver. You must give to receive.
When you are a cheerful, generous giver you show Me that your standard is that you love to give and give in an abundant way with what you have—like the widow that gave only two mites in the Temple but it was all she had. The standard I then use back to you is to give you abundance for every good work plus all sufficiency for your needs. Your standard is to give and bless others, so you receive back gifts and blessings.
My Son told the Pharisees that they paid Me lip service but their hearts were far from Me. They tithed, gave offerings, fasted, prayed long prayers, and practiced their religious traditions and rituals very seriously, but they neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, love, mercy and faithfulness. I told them they should not neglect tithing and prayer but that these should lead to love and justice or it is just lip service without life service. My Son called that straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel. Matthew 23:23-24.
Even though they proclaimed they served Me, inside their hearts were full of greed and self-indulgence. My Son told them to first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. And He told them to do that by giving to the poor that they had robbed from.
One reason you should not judge, besides the fact that the same standard you use will be used back on you, is that you cannot read the heart as I can. Sometimes people appear on the outside as righteous but on the inside they are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
But the sad thing about the Pharisees was that even though their hearts were not right they did not know it. They were self-deceived. At least Herod knew he was lying to the Magi when he said he wanted information on the whereabouts of the new born Messiah so that he could go to worship him, but the Pharisees thought they were keeping My Word and that they were perfect men. You see they had “head” knowledge of My Word but no heart knowledge.
I compared them to a man who had two sons. He told them both to go and work in his vineyard. Matthew 21:28. The first one said he would not go but later he repented and went. The second said he would go but he never went. I said the first one did the father’s will. I likened the Pharisees to the second son and those whom others classified as sinners but who repented and changed their lives to the first son. I look at the heart.
The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. Deuteronomy 30:14.
And what I look for in your heart is love. Love of Me and love of neighbor. And your love for Me is manifested in your love for your neighbor.
If your heart is filled with love for Me you will keep My Word. And My one commandment that sums up all the others is simply “love.” Give out nothing but love in all your thoughts, words and actions. You will then have fulfilled the law. Love never harms the neighbor. Anything else is lip service without life service, no matter how many long prayers you recite. No matter how much you fast. True fasting is sharing your bread with the hungry and freeing the oppressed.
Lip service bears no fruit. Life service bears fruit that remains. Lip service gives Me no glory. Life service gives Me much glory. Lip service makes one proud. Life service makes one humble.
Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit. Proverbs 26:23-24.
I entrust great works to those who give Me life service for I can trust that they will act with love. And it is love alone that heals, provides, and moves mountains. Every miracle Jesus did was done out of compassion. Matthew 14:14; Matthew 15:32; Matthew 20:34; Mark 6:34. I am compassionate. Exodus 34:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3. And so are those who give Me life service for they serve from the heart.
I have probed you and I know you. I know your innermost being. I search your heart and your soul (mind, will and emotions) continually. I consider everything you do. But I am not looking at outward appearance, I am looking at your heart, the inner man.
If I am considering everything you do, may I ask you a question, are you? Are you examining your mind and your heart and why you are doing what you are doing right this moment? Paul called it rightly dividing the word. 2 Timothy 2:15. For My Word is living and working and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12.
I am looking for three things, faith, hope and love. Are you doing all of your actions each day in the parameters of these three? This is being mindful of Me in all your ways. It is then I make straight your paths.
I love you. Love one another for love fulfills the law. Be a doer of the Word. Faith without works is dead.