Matins Devotion: September 12, 2024

2 Chronicles 31

Throughout the history of the church, you’ll find a series of holiness movements. We Lutherans had our own in a tradition called pietism. The Methodist Church is the result of a holiness movement in the church of England. Revivalism and pentecostalism were holiness movements among American protestants. Monasticism has, in many ways, been Roman Catholicism’s form of a holiness movement for quite some time. And in all of these movements, the driving force behind them is pretty much the same. People looked around and essentially said to themselves, “all these people are saying they’re Christians. But so many of them clearly aren’t true believers, just look at how they’re living. They’re corrupted with sin and unfaithful practices. They’re not mindful of what they’re doing. They’re going through the motions. Something has gone seriously wrong with the church, so we need something new, something to distinguish the true believers from the mindless sheep around them.”

It’s understandable how holiness movements come about, of course. But our reading from 2 Chronicles should give us a bit of sobriety about the whole thing. The faithless kings of Judah go after other gods and the people who all consider themselves the children of Israel follow their example. The faithful kings institute reforms and, as we see with Hezekiah, the same children of Israel gleefully and joyously follow them. That’s how things have always worked. It’s how they always will work until Christ returns.

The church isn’t broken when you’re surrounded by people who take up the name “Christian” but don’t live as Christians. This is how things have always been. The people are sheep and they follow the lead of anyone walking ahead of them. It doesn’t mean they’re not true believers when they follow a true Christian and it doesn’t mean they’re incapable of true repentance when they follow an idolater.

So don’t be torn apart by anxiety when you see the fickle faith of the people. Don’t surrender to self-righteousness and convince yourself that your heart is filled with so much more conviction than those around you. Without the Holy Spirit, you are just as much of a mindless sheep as anyone else. When the church looks broken to you, don’t look to the movements of men to fix it. Look to Christ, the Good Shepherd. Look to your own sins and then look to the forgiveness He won for you, the eternal life He made your own. Trust in Him, speak His name and His salvation clearly and boldly. And let God worry about whether those around you respond the right way.