Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

  - Amos 5.14, 15

I am surprised, I must confess, at such ease, and at the source of this mortal sloth which has almost overwhelmed us all; I know not the hearts, ears, senses, that the Lord’s own fiery words have failed to arouse into the watchfulness of an ever-burning zeal, into scorn for the world, into the poverty of Christ, even as thus they have trained many races.

  - Columbanus, Letter to Pope Boniface, Irish, 7th century

Columbanus was complaining about the priests and bishops he encountered in Gaul as he pressed on in his ministry there, early in the 7^th century.

These pastors loved ease and comfort and paid little attention to the teaching of God’s Word about loving Him, despising the world, and hating sin. The lacked zeal for the Lord and His Kingdom. They indulged worldly ways. And they served their flocks for material rather than spiritual gain.

Worse, they were training many others in their own image and likeness, and thus perpetrating an injustice against the Church for generations to come.

No wonder Columbanus felt constrained to write to their boss (not his) in Rome!

In the Old Testament, God always judged His people when they allowed things to get upside-down in their midst, when they loved everything that was evil and hated all that was good. The writer of Hebrews warns us that He has not changed His mind about this; He will discipline us when we stray from His chosen path (Heb. 12.3-11).

We wouldn’t put it in quite the terms Columbanus used, but the situation in churches and among church leaders today is tending toward that which Columbanus denounced and against which Amos prophesied.

The people of God are woefully ignorant of His Word, and their pursuit of worldly interests and indulgences goes unchecked by pastors and shepherds, who fail to call sin what it is and assure their hearers that God loves them anyway.

I hope your pastor doesn’t fall into this category. I hope your pastor isn’t teaching you and your fellow church members anything other than the holy and righteous and good Law of God and the Gospel of Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Only when we love what we should and hate what we should, according to the plain teaching of God’s Word, can we expect to know His favor and blessings on all we do.

Pray for your pastors and shepherds. And pray for yourself. Pray that the Lord will be gracious to us, His chosen remnant.

Psalm 102.12-14 (Leominster: “Not What My Hands Have Done”)
But You, O Lord, abide forever in Your place.
Arise and stand on Zion’s side and lavish us with grace!
Revive Your Church, O Lord! Let all her dust and stones
Be strengthened by Your mighty Word, and compact be as one.

Help me, Lord, to love what I should and hate what I should, according to Your Word.

T. M. Moore, Principal
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