Hindrances to Obedience to the Lord  (4)

Charles Maples Sr.

We have considered in previous studies, as hindrances that keep people from obeying the Lord of Salvation: Lack of Interest, Lack of Knowledge/Understanding, and False Teachers; noting each time that it will make no difference in Eternity, just what the Hindrance might be; the Results will be the same, the Eternal Destruction of that soul that fails to submit to His will! (See Matthew 7:21ff; Hebrews 5:8f; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-9, to name a few Scriptures which assure us of this!)  And so it is with THE HINDRANCE OF PREJUDICE, which I ask you to consider with me in this study.

  “Prejudice” – just what is this?  So far as I know, the word is found only once in our English translations of the Scriptures, and that is in I Timothy 5:21, where the apostle Paul spoke in his charge to Timothy that he “…do these things WITHOUT PREJUDICE, doing nothing with partiality.”

 Mr. W. E. Vine, in his studies  of New Testament words, says the word “prokrima,” from which “prejudice” is translated in the above, “denotes, PRE-JUDGING…. judge before hand,” and in this text is related to “partiality,” in what one does, or does not do relative to the Will of the Lord.

This is one of the terrible sins that Jesus found prevalent among God’s people, the Jews; and which played a primary role in their Rejection of, and Crucifixion of Him, as “The Christ!”  In Luke twenty-two, in which we read of the mock trial through which Jesus was paraded before they murdered Him, Pilate examined the Lord, and concluded that “He has done nothing worthy of death,” and yet the leaders of the Jews insisted that he order Him to be crucified; to which Pilot asked, “Why? What evil has He done?”  The Jews replied, – indeed in BLIND PREJUDICE – “CRUCIFY HIM!”  But we see this “Pre-Judging” demonstrated by Nathanael; when Philip had urged him to “come and see” Jesus of Nazareth; his reply was, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  And so the prejudice of most Jews against Jesus followed Him to the cross!  This same attitude characterized most Jews in their consideration of Old Testament Scriptures, as they applied to the Christ, even in Paul’s time, as he wrote to the church at Corinth, as seen in 2 Corinthians 3:14, he wrote, “Their minds were blinded  For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.”

 And so, just as “the veil” of their misunderstanding of Old Testament Scriptures blinded the hearts of those people (cf. Matthew 22:29), so it is that many people of out time, because of their beliefs; often based upon human wisdom (cf. I Corinthians 1:18ff).  So many have been taught that “Salvation is Wholly of Grace,” or “Salvation is by Faith Only,” etc., so they reject those Scriptures in which one’s salvation requires that they “Obey” the Savior! (See Hebrews 5:8f; Revelation 22:14, etc)  Likewise others; simply because of what they have heard from parents, favorite preachers, and the like; reject Inspired Scriptures concerning many matters which have to do with our Eternal Souls’ Salvation!  As an illustration of this: because they have heard that “baptism has nothing to do with salvation,” they are PREJUDICED against Inspired Scriptures, such as Acts 2:38; 22:16; I Peter 3:21, etc., which clearly teach that He who Saves us, “By Grace” – Titus 2:11ff – also authorized (spoke) those statements!  And this might be seen with regard to any number of Judgments; such as Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, The Oneness of “The Faith” (Ephesians 4:1-7; Jude 3; and others), Organization, Worship, and Work of the church, etc.

 CAUSE: But what would cause man; who must depend upon God for “life and breath, and all things”(Acts 17:25, 28), to be prejudiced toward anything that God has to say to him?  Maybe we can say that the “Basic Cause” is HUMAN WISDOM!  We generally think of “Human Wisdom” in the context of “False Teachers.”