In Zechariah 7, God’s people come with a question about tradition and get an ear-full in return for their hollow and self-centred religion. When we act as if our churches exist merely to meet our needs, when we become precious about the way things are done and annoyed with change, we betray the same need today to hear their rebuke:
God targets four areas his people had neglected (Zechariah 7:9-10):
- Failure to administer true justice
- We should truly seek to hold accountable those in the wrong and vindicate those in the right.
- When we see laws being made that fail to protect the innocent we should use our democratic system to make our voice heard as Christians.
- Failure to show love and compassion
- Our ‘neighbour’ is the one we come across who is in need. When we sanitise our lives by avoiding involvement with the needy, we show hollow religiosity.
- Failure to care for the vulnerable
- We should be seeking to befriend and share our lives and what we have with those in our midst who are vulnerable to oppression and exploitation: the single mother, the divorcee in pain, the widow, the foreigner.
- Failure to think good of others
- When we become critical of our society, judging other’s motives, we begin to think evil of those around us.
- Thinking badly of others leads to doing evil to others because we fail to love those around us.
Digest by Uni Fellowship graduate Joe Towns. Original sermon can be downloaded here.
