Grown Old but Not Grown Up

Have you ever met someone who is religious but not virtuous? Someone who’s highly involved in church but whose life doesn’t bear witness to the fruit of the Spirit? Someone who appears to have grown old in the faith but not grown up … who testifies to the grace of God, but who is cantankerous, whose heart doesn’t appear to have been appropriately transformed?

In this chapter, the prophet is lashing out at such people. They do a variety of religious things, but they’re empty and hollow. They know how to talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk. They prattle on with anticipation about the upcoming “Day of the Lord,” but the prophet said, “When it happens, it’s not going to be enjoyable for you. You’re not going to savor it the way you think you are. There’s a rude awakening coming!”

In v. 24, he says “Let justice roll on like a river (and) righteousness like a never-ending stream.” In other words, the Lord is saying through Amos, “What I use to measure your devotion to me is not your words or ceremonies. What I look at is how you treat others. Don’t try to convince me of how devoted you are by the way you talk or your involvement in a variety of rites and observances. Show me by the way you treat other people—justly … righteously … with honor and respect.”

Religious ordinances and observances are not bad things. But they’re incomplete and insufficient in and of themselves. God gauges our love for him primarily by the way we treat other people. See John 13.34-35.