Good evening from a foggy and cool
Panhandle. It is days like this that remind me of winter days in San
Jose. I am normally a summer person, but I do like fall days like
this, as long as I don't have to work out in them 😀.
There use to be a saying, “A man's
word is his bond.” And there was a time when a handshake was all
you needed to seal a bargain. Days gone by I know, but do we as a
society today honor our commitments? There was a popular tee-shirt when I
was a teenager, “Do Unto Others And Then Split” We thought that
was funny, I guess we didn't know better; because really that is a
sad statement. Life should be about honoring commitments not trying
to put something over on a person.
Jack
Canfield, writing in "The Success Principles", asks
participants in his seminars to agree to a list of 15 ground rules -
be on time, sit in a different chair after every break, no alcoholic
beverages until the training is over, and others. He makes them sign
a form in their workbook that says, "I agree to keep all these
guidelines and ground rules." On the morning of the third day,
he asks everyone who has broken one of the ground rules to stand up.
"What becomes apparent," he writes, "is how casually
we give our word - and then how casually we break it."
Cavett Robert, author and professional
speaker, writes, "Character is the ability to carry out a good
resolution, long after the excitement of the moment has passed."
Honoring your commitments is part of your character. It's a quality
that attracts people to you and enhances your relationships and
opportunities. Failing to honor your commitments will tarnish your
image and have a negative effect on your reputation. It can create a
barrier to personal achievement and erect a roadblock against
success. By honoring your commitments you create a strong foundation
that will support you and your endeavors. As a result you will be
recognized as a person of integrity and character - someone others
can trust. Werner Erhard states, "Your life works to the degree
you keep your agreements."
Honoring commitments impacts all
dimensions of life. Let me ask: Do you honor commitments you make to
your team - to show up for them - even in tough or uncomfortable
situations? Do you honor the commitments you make to your family and
friends? Do you keep the promises you make to them? Do you honor
commitments you make to yourself? Do you honor the commitments you
have made to God?
The people of Judah, with the priests
leading the way, had failed to keep their covenant agreement with
God. They treated God with disrespect, dishonoring His name. They
treated sacred things as common. They turned away from God's Law,
disobeying His commandments. With the most egregious display of
dishonor, some men divorced their Jewish wives, breaking their vows
to marry pagan women. Malachi provided a stern rebuke. He presented
several reasons why the Jewish people were to honor their
commitments. We should follow suit.
I. Responsibility:
Respond in obedience
God desires for us to listen and to
obey. "If you don't listen, and if
you don't take it to heart to honor My name" (Malachi
2:2). It's one thing to believe something is true. It's another
thing to obey it. James reminds us: "But
be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves"
(James 1:22). Young Samuel provides a great model. After hearing
God's voice in the middle of the night on three different occasions,
"Samuel responded, 'Speak, for
Your servant is listening'" (1 Samuel 3:10).
Can you say that now? Are you
listening to God? Are you obeying God's instructions? Are you
honoring your commitments? The litmus test of obedience is whether
or not you are living what you know to be true.
Malachi provides the details:
A. Revere God:
"My
covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them
to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe
of my name.” (v. 5). Stand in awe of God.
We live with a high view and enormous respect for God's holiness.
Many of us, if we are honest with ourselves, play games with God. We
compromise, disobeying whenever we feel like it. Revering our
awesome God inspires obedience.
B. Receive truth:”True
instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his
lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many
from sin.” (v.
6). Accept God's instruction. Maintain a steady intake of the
Bible. God's Word should penetrate our lives like a stake driven
deep into the ground. A failure to teach and to receive the truth
from God's Word sets the stage for wrong doctrine and shabby living.
The crisis in many denominations demonstrates this: that their
leaders could approve homosexual clergy is due to years and years of
failing to teach and apply the Scriptures.
C. Righteous living (v. 6)
Walk in a manner that is good and
upright, turning away from sin.
D. Represent God to others:"For
the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth
men should seek instruction-because he is the messenger of the LORD
Almighty” (v. 7). The Levitical priests
represent God and revealed His will to the people. We, as a kingdom
of priests in the world today, bear that same responsibility. We are
God's messengers to a lost world. We guide people into the truth.
These are four commitments we should
make on a daily basis: Honor God, drink from His Word, live
distinctly as God's people, and to be His messengers in the world.
II. Warning: Recognize
the downside
Malachi does not sugarcoat the
situation. He goes right for the jugular. He reminds his hearers
that if they fail to keep their commitments, God will curse them.
"'If you don't listen, and if you
don't take it to heart to honor My name,' says Yahweh of Hosts, 'I
will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. In
fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking
it to heart'" (Malachi 2:2).
The heart is the command center of a
person's life, where we collect and consider knowledge, where we
make decisions and plans that determine the direction of our lives.
Here we determine to honor our commitments, to keep our promises.
The warning is clear: Failing to honor
your commitments will damage your personal testimony, impact your
success in life, and strain your relationship with God.
III. Reason: Remember the
benefits
Malachi provided several spiritual
benefits to honoring commitments with God. He wrote,
"My
covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them
to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe
of my name.” (Malachi 2:5). Life and peace was
the Lord's covenant promise. Life speaks of a qualitative,
satisfying life known only to those who are recipients of God's
favor. Peace is more than a quiet soul, but also welfare of every
kind.
When a person honors their commitments
they reach out into an unpredictable future and make one thing
predictable: they will be there, they will follow through, and they
will be true to their word. With one simple commitment, a person
creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty. When you
honor your commitments you take a hand in creating your own future.
And that is a good thing, a healthy thing.
IV. Failure: Resorting to
unfaithfulness
The priests failed in their
responsibility to teach the people God's Law. The people in turn
failed to revere God, receive his Word, and live distinctly from
their non-believing neighbors. The result was their disregard for
God's standard concerning marriage. Five times in this passage
Malachi used the word faithless. Some translations use the phrase
"breaking faith" or "deal treacherously." Simply
speaking, they did not honor their commitments. They failed to keep
their promises. They broke their vows.
The word faithless has the idea of
pillaging something intended to remain protected and is tied very
closely to another word that is used in this section - covenant (v.
10, 14). A covenant was a solemn and binding mutual agreement
between two parties. When one party failed to fulfill his covenantal
obligation, the covenant was said to be "broken" in that
the other party was no longer obligated to fulfill his obligations.
The Jews had broken that agreement. God no longer had to fulfill his
side of the obligation.
The Jewish men had violated the
covenant agreement with their wives (v. 10). They had failed to keep
the commitment to their spouses. But this was only a repercussion of
the larger issue stated in verse 8: "'You,
on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to
stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of
Levi,' says the LORD of Hosts" (Malachi 3:8).
The word corrupted means to damage
something as to render it useless. Many a marriage, friendship, or
business partnership has been rendered useless because one person
failed to honor a commitment.
V. Action: Erecting
boundaries
Malachi provided some needed action
steps: "So watch yourselves
carefully, and do not act treacherously against the wife of your
youth . . . Therefore, watch yourselves carefully, and do not act
treacherously" (Malachi 2:15-16). The word watch
means "to hedge with thorns" or "to protect by
attending to." He was speaking to marriage, saying there are
some things we can do to promote and protect our marriages. But the
principle applies to all our commitments.
Here are a few boundaries to consider
erecting to protect the commitments you make:
I alone am responsible for my life. I
will stop blaming, rationalizing, and excusing my failure to honor
my commitment.
- I can't do everything, so it's okay to say no.
- I will speak with purpose.
- I will only make commitments I intend to keep.
- I will write down all the agreements I make.
- I will clear up any broken agreement at the first opportunity.
- I will follow through on the commitments I have made even though it may require sacrifice, work, and cost.
Conclusion
We have a God who honors his
commitments. He keeps his promises. He fulfills his word. When you
choose not to quit when the going gets rough, stick to lost causes
because you said you would, hold on to a love grown cold, stay with
people who have become pains in the neck, then you are most like
God.
The book, "A Promise Kept",
is the story of Robertson McQuilkin, a former missionary and
seminary president who gave up his post because his wife Muriel had
Alzheimer's disease. He dedicated himself full-time for as long as
the Lord deemed necessary to take care of his wife. He wrote of
traveling with his her: Once our
flight was delayed in Atlanta and we had to wait a couple of hours.
Now that's a challenge. Every few minutes we'd take a fast-paced
walk down the terminal in earnest search of what? Muriel had always
been a speed walker. I had to jog to keep up with her.
An
attractive woman executive type sat across from us, working
diligently on her computer. Once when we returned from an excursion
she said something without looking up from her papers. Since no one
else was nearby I assumed she had spoken to me, or at least mumbled
in protest for our constant activity. "Pardon?" I asked.
"Oh," she said, "I was just asking myself, Will I
ever find a man to love me like that?"
McQuilkin
turned to the woman and said, "Oh yes, you can find a man like
that. You can find a man like that, because I've found a man like
that. The only reason I love my wife the way you see me loving her
is because the man Jesus first loved me. The only resources I have
to draw upon to love my wife the way I do are the resources he gives
me. Mirrored in my relationship here with my wife you can see the
faithful love of God for me."
When we honor our commitments we are
like God.
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