True Worship in Malachi: Loving God Without Blemish

Loving God Well

How well do we love? Humanly we may love our spouse with a steadfast and true love. We may love our children more than our own lives and we may fully trust a friend whom we have cherished for decades. In human relationships, devotion is going the extra mile, not being indifferent towards those we love. Our hearts are lifted when we're with them and deeply saddened when they leave. Malachi teaches us that true worship is loving God well, offering him our best, not what is blemished or half-hearted. As New Testament believers, this means offering our lives as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1).

Human relationships can fail us. Our beloved spouse may wander, our children can disrespect us, and our trust can be betrayed. How well do we love God? He never wanders, or disrespects us, or betrays us. And yet, what love do we offer Him? Malachi addresses this very failure to love God as He deserves.

Malachi's Accusation: Contempt for a Holy God

In Malachi 1, we read a warning to the priests of the people of Israel. They have offered "blemished sacrifices" not fit for a human governor much less for God. They have offended, grieved, and made God righteously angry.

God says He loves them. But they ask, "How does God love us?" He accuses them of showing Him contempt, disrespect and arrogance. They don't see their own sin. They claim not to understand how they have shown these attitudes towards God. They say God is pleased with evil and seem unable to see His justice in the world.

“You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’” Malachi 3:14-15

Forgetting Their First Love

Once again Israel has forgotten their first love. Instead of offering their best to God they show Him contempt by bringing worthless sacrifices, such as blind lambs. They ask in their heart, "What difference does it really make?"

They believe evil doers are rewarded, they can't see His justice, and so they complain arrogantly. The very people who have disobeyed God and His commandments are asking for justice for evil doers. The justice they seek is coming but they will be among the first judged.

They have forgotten the tenderness, care, and forgiveness that God has given them for centuries. An undeserved forgiveness, but they are His people, and so He shows mercy. Today, He still offers us underserved mercy. Do we like the Israelites did, forget his many blessings?

Malachi prophesied about a hundred years after the exile to Babylon had ended and the Jews had returned to Jerusalem. In a mere hundred years they had forgotten his mercy towards them. He had restored them, brought them home, and yet all they could see was that, in their minds, evil was blessed. Just as Israel’s failures in Malachi’s time revealed a heart distant from God, we should also examine our own worship to make sure it reflects the heart felt devotion He desires.

Do We Love God Better Than Israel Did?

Can we not see ourselves in Malachi's prophecy? No, we don't offer lambs for sacrifice because Jesus, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world is our sacrifice once and for all to atone for our sins. But we offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving, don't we? Is our worship half hearted? Do we love Him even as much as we love our family and friends? Do we trust Him as much as we do them?

Like Israel, don't we see evil, horrible evil, on a daily basis and in our hearts wonder, "Where is God?" We forget His many blessings and may feel that serving Him is futile. Our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving are often as blemished as theirs.

True Worship in Malachi: Loving God Without Blemish

In Romans 12:1, we read, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." This is the very heart of Malachi’s message, in it the people were rebuked for bringing blemished, half-hearted sacrifices. God has always sought worship that reflects sincere love and wholehearted devotion. That is the heart of worship.

Our spiritual worship is to present our bodies, holy, as a living sacrifice to God. A sacrifice is anything that is consecrated and offered to God. When we are an acceptable living sacrifice we have been transformed, not conformed, to the world. We will seek only the will of God and we will "abdicate the throne of our heart" and put Jesus in its place. In other words, we will totally surrender our lives to Him.

We will quite literally die to self to become that living sacrifice that God desires to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The worship that is good, acceptable, and perfect (Romans 12:2) can only take place in a heart changed by the Holy Spirit. God wants our hearts.

Hebrews also reminds us to bring unblemished sacrifices to God. "Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God" (Hebrews 13:16). Do good and share! Always love others because this is how we show God's love to the world. This is evidence of a heart transformed by faith.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

When we worship God, especially when we are in church, are we only there because that is what we are supposed to do? Are we concerned with everything except how to present ourselves as a living sacrifice? God sees the heart. He knows when our worship of Him is real and when it is a sham. When we hang on to sin and unforgiveness, then it will be impossible to worship Him in the way He desires. As John 4:24 reminds us, we are to "worship in spirit and in truth."

Return to Me, Says the Lord

Thankfully, the Lord is patient with us as He was with Israel. Judgment will come, but He offers us so many chances to come back to Him. In Malachi 3:7(b) God tells Israel, "Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty." Just as then, He leaves us a way back.

In James 4:8, he echoes the same truth, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." James tells us to purify our hearts. Stop being double minded, which means, stop living with one foot in the Lord's camp and one in the world's. Hold onto the faith you claim to have if you want God to "return to you." True repentance means God will bless you by returning to you with His peace, fellowship, and guidance. But what sins were the children of Israel guilty of in Malachi's day? What was keeping them from drawing near to God?

What God Condemned in Malachi's Day

Before we assume we’re unlike the people of Malachi’s time, consider the specific sins God rebuked. They’re not as far removed from us as we might think:

• marrying outside of their religion which led to an adoption of pagan practices.

• divorcing their wives for no reason.

• not bringing their tithes and offerings to the temple as was required.

• neglecting the needs of the poor, widows, and orphans.

• questioning God's justice.

• priests were neglecting to properly instruct their people "causing many to stumble."

• and not upholding their old Levitical covenant.

Do These Warnings Apply to Us?

These are hard to read. These problems persist to this day. Have we married a non-Christian? 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 tells us plainly we should not. We see divorce far too often, even among Christians, for no Biblical reason.

Do we give to our church and the poor? When we give, it's no good if we give with one hand but want to hang on to the money with the other. Do we question God's righteous justice?

Are the people that are teaching and preaching to us doing so truthfully, following the word of God, and without showing favoritism? Hebrews 13:17 tells us that leaders in the church must watch over their flock because they will have to give an account to God.

The Coming Messenger and the Final Judgment

But Malachi does remind us that there is a faithful remnant of people who fear and honor the Lord (Malachi 3:16). God promises to spare these faithful ones. Once again His people will see the difference between the judgment of the righteous and that of the wicked. He promises that evil doers will be burned up like hay stubble, but "for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays" (Malachi 4:2).

As this final book of the Old Testament closes, just as the last book of the New Testament, we see the promise of judgment on the wicked and reward for the righteous. Malachi continues and tells the Jewish people to "Remember, the law of my servant Moses..."

Remember, in this sense, doesn't just mean to recall something, but to pay attention to the law and to do it. Today we are also called to remember the Words of God and to do them (Luke 11:28). As part of this call to remember and obey, Malachi also points forward to a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord.

Malachi, whose name means "messenger", promises another messenger will come who will prepare the way for the Messiah (Malachi 3:1). John the Baptist did prepare the way for Jesus, who said John was "Elijah who is to come" (Matthew 11:14), not that John was the reincarnation of Elijah, but that he functioned in the role of Elijah. His role was to "prepare the way of the Lord" not to be the physical Elijah (Isaiah 40:3).

The prophecy of Malachi 3:1 fulfills Jesus' first coming while some interpret Malachi 4:5, which states, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet...." as pointing toward a future figure before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, the final judgment of the earth. The meaning of the coming messenger is not entirely clear. Only when everything is revealed will we totally understand it.

Acceptable Worship Comes from the Heart

What Malachi teaches us is that God looks at the heart and true worship of the heart is the only worship God finds acceptable. When we fail morally, without the intention of change, or when we blame God unjustly, or are simply bored by going through the motions of religion, we cannot rightly worship our Lord.

Some of us have given our all to our Savior. We love Him to the utmost. For us, there is healing, justice, and mercy. We thank God for His patience with us. We may be broken but He is our ultimate healer. By the power of His Holy Spirit our sacrifices will not be blemished. This is what Malachi still asks of us today: to love God with a heart that offers no blemish, only devotion.

Please enjoy this beautiful song by Selah, "Wonderful, Merciful Savior."