WORKER OF INIQUITY.

Happy New Year!! 2025 already! December was a busy month for me, so please accept my apologies for my inconsistency. I spent three weeks in America with my family for Thanksgiving, which is a whole story in itself. Then I returned home and went straight back to work. December was a blur. But I did receive sad news during December, which inspired this post. I have deliberated about sharing my thoughts, not wanting to come across as incensitive, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I had to talk about it. So I apologise in advance if you take offence at the subject matter, but it is important, and something we all should think about because it’s a matter of life and death!

A few weeks back, I received news that somebody I knew had passed away due to complications of an illness. I’ll call her “Susan”. I hadn’t seen Susan for a long time, I had never kept in contact with her over the years, so she had become somebody distant, an aquaintance. I used to work with Susan 10 years ago, and during that time, I had been brought into her circle of friends due to a mutual friend. I had even attended her wedding (to another woman),  I was not a Christian in those days. So, when I was asked to pray for her when I first heard she was sick, I was very torn. I did pray for her, but for some reason, I felt bothered about it. I felt guilty for feeling the way I did, as I knew that it was good to pray for others, especially in their time of need. A week later, when I was told of her passing, I felt sad, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It wasn’t because I was mourning a friend, but because I didn’t know where she was going. I consoled myself with the thought that perhaps she had a life change. I hadn’t spoken to her in years, I didn’t know her anymore. Then I was added to a group chat where everybody shared their surprise of her passing, pictures, and memories of their last time with Susan. It was then that I knew for sure that she hadn’t changed. There were some people in the group who would call themselves believers. These were the people who wrote messages that Susan was with the Lord, Susan was enjoying herself in heaven. Messages that inspired a sense of hope and comfort. People said how Susan was kind, always giving to others, full of love, all the good things you want to hear. Because of her goodness, there was no doubt in the group chat that she wouldn’t be chilling in heaven. This troubled me further because I knew it wasn’t true.

I started to think about people, including “Christians,” who are under the impression that “their” gooodness will be what gets them into heaven. This false sense of security, which, in my opinion, is straight from the enemy himself! The idea that we can live opposed to God and still see heaven is baffling to me, it’s definitely not what I read in the bible, and if you call yourself a believer but don’t understand that, then I would have to ask you, do you really know God? Do you really know Jesus? So the question to you is this: If you were to die tomorrow, do you know where you are going?

MATTHEW 7:21 “NOT EVERYONE WHO SAYS TO ME, ‘LORD, LORD,’ WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT THE ONE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN.” One of the most scariest verses, in my opinion. The fact that we can call on the Lord boldly but fail to see heaven should have us always working out our salvation in fear and trembling. Just because you call out to the Lord in prayer or send the amens in the group chat does not mean you are saved and secure. The question you have to ask yourself is, are you doing God’s will? Are you living in obedience to God? Are you living to the standards that your sinful flesh has created or the standards that God has created? Is it YOUR good, or is it God’s good? Just because people thought Susan was a good person doesn’t mean God agrees. Susan was not obedient to God. She did not do the will of God, and if God’s love language is obedience, then I think it’s fair to say Susan lived like she hated God. Because of that, it grieved my spirit to say that I didn’t agree with the group chat.

MATTHEW 7:22-23 “ON THAT DAY MANY WILL SAY TO ME, ‘LORD, LORD, DID WE NOT  PROPHESY IN YOUR NAME, AND CAST OUT DEMONS IN YOUR NAME, AND DO MANY MIGHTY WORKS IN YOUR NAME?’ AND THEN WILL I DECLARE TO THEM, ‘I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WORKERS OF LAWLESSNESS.” I could not imagine God turning me away and telling me He never knew me. Imagine thinking you know someone so well, but them, turning you away because they don’t know you. The plot twist being, that you actually didn’t know them like you kept proclaiming to. It hit home that many of us who call ourselves Christians don’t know God at all. TITUS 1:16 “THEY PROFESS TO KNOW GOD, BUT THEY DENY HIM BY THEIR WORKS. THEY ARE DETESTABLE, DISOBEDIENT, UNFIT FOR ANY GOOD WORK.”

I thank God that He sent His son to pay the debt I could never pay. I thank God for the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. I know I could never work my way into heaven on my own merit. I am a sinner, and because of that, I know I will always fall short of God’s glory. So I thank God for His grace and mercy! As my friend always says, you can’t pray right and live wrong! If we keep His commandments, we can truly say we know God. Yes, we may not get it right all the time, but we don’t make a practice of sinning. But if we don’t keep His commandments but claim to know God, the bible says that we are liars, not having the truth in us. Our faith should equate to action. If the things that grieve God do not grieve us, do we even have the Holy Spirit in us? When we live by the Spirit, He causes us to turn away from sin. We do the things that please God, we become righteous, the Spirit helps us to be holy. But if we live by our flesh, we turn to sin, we do the things that grieve the Spirit, we even start to make allowances for things that God sees as evil, we start to say it’s not that bad, that God doesn’t see it as sin. We start saying things like love is love, and God is love, so it’s all good. We deminish who God is and create our own version of god in our lives. 1 JOHN 3:9 “NO ONE BORN OF GOD MAKES A PRACTICE OF SINNING, FOR GOD’S SEED ABIDES IN HIM; AND HE CANNOT KEEP ON SINNING, BECAUSE HE HAS BEEN BORN OF GOD.”

I don’t know who needs to hear this or needs this reminder, but you can’t have the Father without the Son! Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life! Don’t let the enemy steal your free gift! The day of judgement is fast upon us, and not because I believe Jesus is coming back in glory next week. It could be another 50 years before that day comes for all we know. But because we don’t know when we will take our last breath! When we die, we won’t get another try to get it right. We can’t plead our case and say, “Forgive me, I won’t do it again, I’ll be better, I promise!” It doesn’t work like that. Live your life like Jesus is coming back tomorrow! All is not lost. The fact that God grants you life each day is a new mercy, a chance to pick up your cross and deny yourself!

HEBREWS 10:26 “FOR IF WE GO ON SINNING DELIBERATELY AFTER RECEIVING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH, THERE NO LONGER REMAINS A SACRIFICE FOR SINS,”

I’m sorry that Susan didn’t get a chance to do things differently, but if you are reading this, that means you do! Don’t be a worker of iniquity! Please don’t read this as me pointing a finger at you in judgement. Just know that I had to sit and think about my own walk with God. Maybe I have become complacent and comfortable, and that’s a dangerous place to be in. Losing someone really put things into perspective for me. As we enter into 2025, a time when we seek to better ourselves, let’s seek to better ourselves for God.

2 CORINTHIANS 13:5 “EXAMINE YOURSELVES, TO SEE WHETHER YOU ARE IN THE FAITH. TEST YOURSELVES. OR DO YOU NOT REALIZE THIS ABOUT YOURSELVES, THAT JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU?- UNLESS INDEED YOU FAIL TO MEET THE TEST!”