My dear readers,

Choose: Shame or Honour?

Proverbs 13:18: “Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.”

Life is a choice. To live a life honourably or shamefacedly was the most critical choice for a professing believer living in Israel. He carried the name of the LORD everywhere he went as an Israelite. According to the Holy Scriptures, he could bring glory through his good works. He could bring shame to the name of the LORD if he was wicked and evil in his deeds. He belonged to a privileged people whose origin began with and was designed by God. No other nation could make that claim except Israel. The light of Christ and the world's salvation depended on the Israelites’ choices in life. Christians today inherited this privilege through God’s grace and mercies when Israel rejected Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ (i.e. the Messiah in Hebrew). God rejected Israel as His witness and made a people who were once God’s enemies into His holy witness for Christ. Romans 9:30-33: “³⁰What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. ³¹But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. ³²Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; ³³As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

God has given Gentiles, who are in Christ, a choice they did not have before salvation. Before salvation, all Gentiles and Jews were born in sin. Gentiles were slaves to their sins. They tried to deliver themselves from this bondage by doing what was right in their own eyes. They made God in their own image. They designed their own version of heaven. They invented their own way to reach this imaginary heaven. They deny the existence of God so that they can do what is right in their own eyes with impunity, fearing no God; they deceive themselves into thinking that no God is waiting to judge and condemn them when they die. The Jews were also born in sin but privileged by God to live in a nation where everything was ordained by God, from their diet and clothing to how they spent their weeks, what their holy days were and their spiritual significance, the place of worship and God’s Word that is taught daily. The Jews had a choice to either follow the LORD or the gods of the Canaanites.

Professing believers today are like the Jews. They attend church, read the Bible, hear God’s Word every Lord’s Day, attend Bible Study, partake in the sacraments of Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and witness the lives of born-again believers on the Lord’s Day every week and during fellowship meetings. Like the Jews, they have a choice.

• Choose to refuse instruction – The portion of God’s Word that is hardest to accept are portions that tell us we are wrong. More than 90% of God’s Word is about the sins committed by unbelievers and believers. Some hate attending church because they do not wish to hear “scoldings” Sunday after Sunday. They prefer compliments rather than condemnations. They like to hear about God’s love but not His anger and hatred; His grace but not His holy justice and punishment; about heaven but not hell. They leave Bible-honouring churches for churches that preach sweet nothings even as they live in sin and carnality. They refuse to listen even when a faithful friend cares enough to warn them of their transgressions. They will call the friend an enemy and drive him away as if he is decaying rubbish.
  
  God’s judgment is that such a person’s life is poverty and shame. He is poor because all he has are material things that will be consumed by fire one day. He spends his time amassing wealth and swims in the praises of man. His heart treasures all things that glitter. His mind cannot stop thinking about wanting more and more. He is a professing believer who has a choice. He chooses to amass vanity, and he knows it is vanity because God’s Word teaches this truth from Genesis to Revelation. Why would a child of God deliberately choose vanity, i.e. poverty, when he can choose eternal rewards? The only logical answer is that perhaps he is a believer in name but not in heart. He is rich in the eyes of the world, in which the devil is god, but not rich toward God in things eternal. Lot is an example of what could happen to a righteous man who did not have God’s Word.
  
  Today’s believers have all sixty-six books of the Bible. All God’s children should love God’s Word, like living, breathing souls who love to eat and drink to keep them alive. Understanding and obeying the Bible is an evidence of being born again. The born-again believer knows he is spiritually alive because the Bible provides daily milk and meat to his hungry soul.
  
  But when he turns his back on God and His holy Word and walks towards the world, he is poor in God’s eyes. It is a shame because he has nothing at the end of his life. He could have had so much eternal riches because he attended church faithfully all his growing-up years. The word “instruction” is admonishment or chastisement using words. He refuses correction in his stubbornness and pride. His love for the high praises and accolades of sinful men will bring him shame on the day of God’s holy judgment. When his life ends, his shame and poverty will remain for eternity when he is cast into hell to join all the unbelievers who died in sin. He refuses to listen to instructions when God sends people who care or through God’s Word. When his life ends, it will be too late.
  
  

• Choose to regard reproof – The born-again believer, who has experienced the genuine forgiveness of God in Christ, is made holy in Christ. His holiness within him makes him sensitive to the sins in his life because of the Holy Spirit who dwells in him forever. He studies God's Word diligently and joyfully understands why more than 90% of God's Word is about admonishment and chastisement. He lives in a sinful world and will be impacted by its seductive power and temptations as long as he serves God in this earthen vessel. His inner man desires perfection and not to sin again. However, as long he remains in this earthen vessel, he will continue to succumb. But the moment he succumbs, he will repent because he desires the outward man, who bears the holy image of Christ, to match the inner man who is holy. The Holy Spirit will convict him of his sin, and he will repent immediately and stop justifying himself and being defensive which are marks of unrepentance that characterises an unbeliever. He loves to attend churches where God’s Word is faithfully expounded and sanctifies his heart and mind. In this manner, he conforms more and more to the image of his Holy Saviour, Jesus Christ. He acknowledges his weakness and constantly prays for the Holy Spirit's help and filling to remain holy as his God is holy.
  
  He knows that God's Word is the only instrument the Holy Spirit will use to sanctify his mind. He loves to attend Bible Study sessions and listen to God’s Word which helps him think biblically in all his relationships. With God’s Word, he prays correctly, loves God and His people unconditionally, serves as an unprofitable servant, and worships God in spirit and truth. These are all done with the help of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in him. He gives God all the glory if he is a blessing to others. He knows in his heart that without Christ he can do nothing and that he is nothing. He is only the branch attached to the vine that gives him all the spiritual nutrients to worship, live, serve and witness. In this life-long path of holiness, he honours God and, God willing, God will honour him in return because He is a God who always keeps His holy Word. 1 Samuel 2:30: “Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”

Life is a choice. All professing believers have a choice. Will you choose shame or honour before God?