Psalm 119:113 (Moffatt)
“I hate men who are half and half…”
Jesus is either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all. We’ve quoted that before but it is only part true for there are areas in most believers’ lives that aren’t yet totally yielded to Him.Harvey Two-Face is of course a Batman villain.Harvey Dent, District Attorney for Gotham City is touched by tragedy when acid burns away half of his face,thus scarring him and splitting his personality.The duality he struggles with rides on the flip of a two headed scarred coin.As he does with any villain, Batman looks to find the good in Harvey and help him in his struggle to be free from the dark side of his split.Our Lord still loves us despite any lack of sincerity or double mindedness we emit.Despite our being split down the center at times,God waits patiently for us to decide. David, on the other hand, isn’t as merciful. He said, “I hate the half and half”. What a strong word, but it is used often in relation to sin. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “Hate the evil, and love the good” (Amos 5:15). I don’t think we can interpret that David hated the person, but that he hated the attitude, the spirit behind the person. The old version translates it, “I hate vain thoughts” (KJV). “Vain” there is italicized, added by the translators, so it should read simply, “I hate thoughts”, plural, implying uncontrolled thoughts, thoughts that jump from here to there. Another translation says “double-minded” (NRSV), Amplified reads, “undecided [in religion]”. But Peterson’s Message Bible paraphrases, “I hate the two-faced”
James assured that the “double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). David spoke of those who flatter with their lips and speak “with a double heart” (Psalm 12:2) Half and half is not a coffee creamer, it is a covenantal schizophrenia. The half and half lives somewhere between saint and ain’t. He tries to thumb a ride down both sides of the road at once without any clear destination in mind. There is no way to be happy with halfway. halfway leads to misery.Jesus told the Laodicean church, “If you’re not sold out you’ll be spewed out!” (Revelation 3:16) In other words choose sides. In Bible days that meant you either believed in Saul or you believed in David. Its God that draws the plumb-line to get us off the fence-line.No straddling the fence,it could be really bad for the groin.
“I hate men who are half and half”. I hear some say “I’m not conservative or liberal. I'm a moderate.I weigh each issue and am somewhere in between”.Homosexual marriage,Gay rights,abortion these are the issues that are splitting churches today as well as society. While some attempt to kow-tow to both sides by remaining passive and uninvolved.Try that in a football game sometime. Try playing for both teams and see how banged up you get. I’m not saying there is no room for grace, of course there is. But some issues are by definition polarizing. Dancing around issues, trying to find a moderate pulse on things like abortion, gay marriage is not taking a side.Admittedly,the truth of God's word is not always pretty,even to some Christians I know. Whatever we’re going to do let’s do it but please don’t make the mistake of trying to be "Two Faced or half and half”. To us Jesus should be Lord of all if He is going to be Lord of any. That requires decisiveness then corresponding action.Believing is more about our behaviour than just our words.(Mark 16.16) Otherwise the blend is somewhere between room temperature coffee and warm diet Pepsi.Get ready to be spewed......... Yuck!
Nuff Said,
“I hate men who are half and half…”
Jesus is either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all. We’ve quoted that before but it is only part true for there are areas in most believers’ lives that aren’t yet totally yielded to Him.Harvey Two-Face is of course a Batman villain.Harvey Dent, District Attorney for Gotham City is touched by tragedy when acid burns away half of his face,thus scarring him and splitting his personality.The duality he struggles with rides on the flip of a two headed scarred coin.As he does with any villain, Batman looks to find the good in Harvey and help him in his struggle to be free from the dark side of his split.Our Lord still loves us despite any lack of sincerity or double mindedness we emit.Despite our being split down the center at times,God waits patiently for us to decide. David, on the other hand, isn’t as merciful. He said, “I hate the half and half”. What a strong word, but it is used often in relation to sin. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “Hate the evil, and love the good” (Amos 5:15). I don’t think we can interpret that David hated the person, but that he hated the attitude, the spirit behind the person. The old version translates it, “I hate vain thoughts” (KJV). “Vain” there is italicized, added by the translators, so it should read simply, “I hate thoughts”, plural, implying uncontrolled thoughts, thoughts that jump from here to there. Another translation says “double-minded” (NRSV), Amplified reads, “undecided [in religion]”. But Peterson’s Message Bible paraphrases, “I hate the two-faced”James assured that the “double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). David spoke of those who flatter with their lips and speak “with a double heart” (Psalm 12:2) Half and half is not a coffee creamer, it is a covenantal schizophrenia. The half and half lives somewhere between saint and ain’t. He tries to thumb a ride down both sides of the road at once without any clear destination in mind. There is no way to be happy with halfway. halfway leads to misery.Jesus told the Laodicean church, “If you’re not sold out you’ll be spewed out!” (Revelation 3:16) In other words choose sides. In Bible days that meant you either believed in Saul or you believed in David. Its God that draws the plumb-line to get us off the fence-line.No straddling the fence,it could be really bad for the groin.
“I hate men who are half and half”. I hear some say “I’m not conservative or liberal. I'm a moderate.I weigh each issue and am somewhere in between”.Homosexual marriage,Gay rights,abortion these are the issues that are splitting churches today as well as society. While some attempt to kow-tow to both sides by remaining passive and uninvolved.Try that in a football game sometime. Try playing for both teams and see how banged up you get. I’m not saying there is no room for grace, of course there is. But some issues are by definition polarizing. Dancing around issues, trying to find a moderate pulse on things like abortion, gay marriage is not taking a side.Admittedly,the truth of God's word is not always pretty,even to some Christians I know. Whatever we’re going to do let’s do it but please don’t make the mistake of trying to be "Two Faced or half and half”. To us Jesus should be Lord of all if He is going to be Lord of any. That requires decisiveness then corresponding action.Believing is more about our behaviour than just our words.(Mark 16.16) Otherwise the blend is somewhere between room temperature coffee and warm diet Pepsi.Get ready to be spewed......... Yuck!
Nuff Said,
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