This month, our meditation has been excerpted from the book entitled Extreme Devotion, compiled by the Voice Of the Martyrs. In the following passage, the account of Russian believers provides us with fodder for reflection and perhaps application:
He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. (Matthew 12:30)
They were singing choruses when the two soldiers entered with rifles. The service came to a halt as the Russian soldiers stared at the believers with wild eyes.
"What are you doing here?" they shouted. "Worshiping your imaginary God?" The church members cowered in the pews, wondering if there were more soldiers and more guns outside.
"All those who are faithful to God, move to the right side of the church," said one of the soldiers, his face a mask of hatred. "You will be shot for your faith. You who wish to go home and keep your life, stand on the left side. You must decide to live or die. Those who are faithful to this 'God' will die. Those who deny him can live freely."
Ten minutes earlier, everyone had sung praises equally. Now it was a question of life or death. Some stood to the left, looking sadly, or waving apologetically to those on the right. Some stood on the right, their eyes closed in last-minute prayers.
"You on the left are free to go," one of the soldiers said moments later. Those people filed out, taking one last look at those who would soon be dead.
When only those on the right remained, the solders put down their weapons. "We, too, are Christians," they said, "but we wish to worship without hypocrites."
A moment of consideration: In this world, the things we can count on seem to grow smaller, less visible/tangible and less numerous; the givens become less sure. Our relationship with the Savior lends stability and objective truth to our lives. In times like these, we need our Savior. Like prophetic times in the Old Testament, societal structure is coming unhinged, with the seeming (vocal) minority seeking to corrupt the very fabric of our nation. Definitions of words change, and like "bigot" which once described a person devoted to and set on his or her own opinions and prejudices, now, the word describes a conservative viewpoint, a love of our country, and our basic family unit. A Bible-believing church is derided as bigoted, hypocritical and essentially poisonous to society.
Hypocrisy as a sin, is always applied to or attributed to others--never to oneself. We humans tend to protect our inner thoughts with consideration of hypocrisy within ourselves; we leave that “sin” disregarded, ignored and disavowed. That is comfortable but not godly. Therein lies the overt confusion. Hypocrisy is hypocrisy, correct? In God’s Word the Psalmist asks a question we ought to ask: How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don't let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. (Psalms 19:12-13) In our world, "Family" becomes any unit of people; this includes two men, two women, polygamy, bestiality, or being at least in one case married to a tree. The definition of the natural family is under attack.
Parishioners of this small Russian church, in one brief event, experienced confusion, disruption, fear, and questions regarding character. Soldiers burst in on a wonderful service of praise in the church. Wildness, hatred, vileness, and ruthlessness showed in the faces of the soldiers, as they separated those Faithful to God on the right side of the church. Those who wished to save themselves (Matthew 10:38-39) and to go home and keep their life were sent to the left side of the church. Then the confusion began, as the left-side parishioners filed out of the church--and the right-side parishioners remained, to their doom. The unforeseen ensued, as the soldiers lay down their weapons--saying "We, too, are Christians, but we wish to worship without hypocrites." Their actions contradicted their profession; in essence, their disruption was hypocritical.
Their actions possibly stunned the faithful Christians. No true believer would threaten fellow faithful believers with death. The threat seemed real. The faithful had no reason to think their lives would be spared. Hypocrisy exists wherever people live and interact. The soldiers' duplicity inculcated fear of martyrdom--all because two soldiers mistakenly thought they could cull from that Russian church the hypocrisy that they themselves were showing. It is the Holy Spirit's role to separate and to remove hypocrisy in the church. In a broad sense, society condemns the church and its saints, with the very hypocrisy they too display. Yet the Savior spoke vocally against hypocrisy in the Israeli society (e.g., with Pharisees and Scribes; Matthew 23:28-36) but was forgiving to Peter when Peter failed to live up to his own claims of bravado. Christ dealt less acerbically with the sons who wanted to sit at Christ's right hand and left hand in heaven, and with those who judge others.
Supposed "Christian" soldiers disrupted a service of worship; any disturbance to a worship service to our God is not acceptable to true believers. As Christians, we are not to threateningly disrupt services of worship to our God. This violent intrusion into worship, when all was said and done, left the faithful believers to not trust their intruders and left them with much apprehension, which marred the true worship experience. When the left-side parishioners had gone, it would be hard to think of true praise to God, with their proclaimed executioners in their midst. Furtive glances at the soldiers, perhaps parishioners taking small steps away from their "executioners", whisperings between churchgoers, would be understandable responses to the unbelievable turn of events that day.
Worship happens when parishioners trust and praise their God. That day in a small Russian church would raise hesitant and somewhat halting praise—loving God, but lacking trust in the soldiers. Would the soldiers still kill them after the service? What did the soldiers mean, saying they were "Christians" too? What would the priest/pastor do to stop their possible killing? In the moment of heroically choosing faithfulness to our Lord, one avers he/she is able to join Christ in death and rise in Him to eternal life. It is, as it were, a proclamation that "Lord, we are able. Our spirits are Thine. Remold them, make us, like Thee, divine. Thy guiding radiance above us shall be a beacon to God, to love, and loyalty." "Are ye able?" Still the Master whispers down eternity, and heroic spirits answer now, as then, in Galilee: "Lord, we are able." The faithful Christians in that small church were heroic, albeit they might have well been diffident heroic spirits; they were heroic, nonetheless.
Were the parishioners who went home, without hope? We are not told, but it would have been helpful for the faithful in the next few days to welcome them back into fellowship, acknowledging that their "hypocrisy" did not lead to death apart from the church. Perhaps the faithful welcomed the left-side Christians back and worked to bring them back to heroic faith (Galatians 6:1-5). They could help the left-siders understand the importance of what just happened, that that one moment was preceded by many "defining moments" when their faithfulness was tested by temptation. The worshipers came to learn, that day, that such defining moments, moments of temptation/decision often come upon us without warning--throughout life. Defining moments can lead to heroism, or to succumbing to the world. (This episode in the Russian church did not end as many similar attacks on Christians have happened. There have been numerous instances when believers have been lined up and sentenced to being killed--unless they convert to another religion. These have not resulted in the soldiers confessing their own Christian belief. The believers have been killed in those situations.)
While hypocrisy is not a desirable trait for Christians, neither is it a desirable trait for non-Christians. We can overcome this weakness in ourselves with the Lord’s help (1 John 1:9), and ought to do so in honoring our Lord God. It is possible to "say what we mean, and mean what we say" and to bring our actions and expressions into synchronization; our Lord said to us, “…let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). This is one way we can glorify our God, and that’s a good thing.