RELIGION WITHOUT RIGHTEOUSNESS

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1.  Something I Had Never Seen

Sometimes you think you have read the Bible many times enough until you come upon something you never saw all the times you read the Bible.  This morning, in the course of other matters, I felt prompted to read the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).  I picked up my Bible, went to my table, sat down, and read it, and I came upon something I had never seen there: the irony of extreme religion without compassion, without mercy, without righteousness.

 

2.  Between Creed and Kindness

In that parable, a traveller on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho falls among robbers who strip him of his possessions and leave him half dead along the highway.  Luckily, an eminent priest comes along, but he does not go near the dying man.  He passes by “on the other side” of the road, keeping a pious distance.  He is guarding his holiness, lest, according to the law, he should touch a dead man, or a dying man who eventually dies in his hands, and he becomes defiled (Ezekiel 44:25; Leviticus 21:1-3).

Next, a Levite passes by.  The other was a Bishop, this is a church worker, an ordained elder, an assistant pastor of the same brood as the previous clergyman.  The bishop did not draw close.  He didn’t dare.  He looked ‘safely’ from afar.  This one manages to get close, but merely to take a look; “he came and looked on him”; he took a video of the show, and also “passed by” quickly to “the other side” of the road, lest he be defiled by the dying victim on the road.  He was being careful not to break the law.

The injured man was very unlucky that day.  First, he fell into the hands of robbers; and next, into the hands of brothers. He heard their footsteps and hoped that help had come from holier men.  Sadly, each time, he was disappointed, with no strength to cry.  With the robbers, it was physical pains; now, the pain was also in the soul.

The third person to arrive the scene was a Samaritan, a stranger to the dying Jew whose religious kinsmen had passed him by as if they would rather see him rot on the street than that they should lose their legalistic claims to holiness.  They were persuaded that they were pleasing God, even if that should cost other’s lives.  They were ‘keeping’ the rules of God, proudly and stiffly.  Their attitude to people, to issues, especially to people’s calamities, was very religious but very loveless; very theological but lacking in compassion.  The law filled their heads but did not touch their hearts. They never said it, but for all they cared, you could die in your bloody wounds so far as their theology was not injured.  They keep to “the other side” of the road – their holier side of life.  They withhold help not because they cannot give it, but because they are restrained by a law that deadens the heart; a stiff theology that elevates soulless rites.  Thankfully, help came to the dying man from a most unlikely source.

Jesus often encountered their kind, especially in the temple.  They were gladder to see you sick or dead than that you ‘broke’ their sabbath with the gladness of a priceless healing.  They fought to keep the purity of obedience to God, yet what indeed they defended was not the Lord but their law – the tradition of the elders (Mark 7:5).  They could kill you on the sabbath for ‘breaking’ the sabbath with an offering of kindness (John 5:10; Mark 3:3-6).

 

3.  What they Lacked  

The story says that when the Samaritan saw the dying man, “he had compassion on him.”  That was something the pulpitless Samaritan didn’t preach but possessed; something the others preached but did not have: compassion, kindness, human feeling.  They preached a holiness that did not have a practical human face.  They proudly bore a title they did not live.  They were always on the road going somewhere, carrying a religion without a heart.  Sadly, there are more of them on the highway of life than those who will stop to pour the first aid of “oil and wine” into killing wounds.  Deformed by dogma, they often find scriptures for their choices.

Jesus had told that parable to answer a Jewish lawyer, an expert teacher and interpreter of the laws of Moses, who had asked what one could do to inherit eternal life.  The verdict of that lawyer was that the true neighbour was the one who “shewed mercy” to the dying man.  Jesus used the word “compassion” to describe the Samaritan; the lawyer used the word “mercy.”  Both words described the two great virtues that were lacking in the lives of the temple clan.  They had the theology but lacked the spirit; the Samaritan lacked their theology but had a noble soul.  They were religious; he was righteous.

What has a man without a heart of mercy got to do in the frock of a priest?  What has he got to do with the title of a Levite?  What kind of sermons will he preach?  According to Hebrews 5:1-2, such a person is unqualified for the office of a high priest.

 

4.  A Prayer

Help does not always come from quarters most expected.  At times, divine help comes from strange places – like Elijah’s timely rations from greedy ravens (1 Kings 17:6).  Sometimes, one’s true brothers are not those who are so by blood and by creed.  Sometimes, your troubles merely reveal your true friends.  In the day you fall among thieves on the highway of life (God forbid) – financially, emotionally, physically, may God deliver you from priests without mercy and Levites without compassion.  May God send you help today, even if He has to send ravens.  Amen.

From The Preacher’s diary,

February 2, 2026.

       

THE FEARFUL SILENCE

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1.  The Quietness Before the Storm

All silence is not golden, some is the quietness before the apocalypse.  All silence is not calmness, some is the stillness before the atomic catastrophe.  Sometimes we have misjudged silence until it was very late.  Early in secondary school, one of the relational lessons we learned was to be careful with quiet people, because you never know what is steaming under their silent lids.  The day they burst, even hell could be on fire.  Moses was the meekest man there was.  The day some two close folks thought to take advantage of that and speak against Him, heaven roared against them.  One of the two instantly became a leper, and other shut himself out of Promised Land (Numbers 12:1-9).  The day Moses himself got angry, heaven took notice in millennial ways (Psalm 106:33).  All silence is not a sign of peace.

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His Nephew was the Angel

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1.  Wingless Angels

Divine deliverance does not always come from above; sometimes it comes from below, which makes it no less divine.  Angels are not always winged, so we miss them many times (Hebrews 13:2; Acts 1:10; 24:4).

So much has been said and heard about St Paul, the world-famous preacher, sometimes in the image of Melchisedec, “Without father, without mother” (Hebrews7:3), without a wife, without biological children.  But Paul was a man, and he had a sister.  That is one part of the story.

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Is God More Pleased with Preachers?

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Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan, with spectacular displays following.  While He was stepping out of the waters, “the heavens were opened,” a dove came upon Him, and the voice of God was heard announcing, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Lately, that proclamation has struck me with a fresh interest, stirring a profound question to which you are probably the one to provide me an answer:  What about Jesus made Him well pleasing to the Father?  At that time, Jesus had preached to no multitude, healed no sick, and multiplied neither bread nor fish to feed thousands.  He had turned no water into wine, stilled no storm, cleansed no leper.  He was merely known as a carpenter’s son whose mother and siblings were also well known (Mark 6:3).  In other words, Jesus hadn’t started ‘ministry’ as we generally know it.  If He was no great preacher then, what was so pleasing to the Father about Him?  For what quality in Him did God so loudly and publicly proclaim Him as a “beloved” Son, one in whom He was not just pleased but “well pleased”?

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The Jonah Show: Don’t Try This at Home (Part 2 of 2)

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6.  Let’s Reason Together

God needed to do something to get this stubborn child’s attention again.  Perhaps it was time to call a family meeting (Isaiah 43:26); time to “reason together,” as He once invited in Isaiah 1:18, regardless of our inferior IQ.  How can a mortal reason with the Omniscient?  The Father doesn’t care.  He understands.

Moses had reasoned with God when the Almighty was so angry that He might have destroyed an entire nation in a flash.  Moses told Him, “Ahh, Lord, You can’t do that.  It will spoil Your great name before the Egyptians and other heathen nations who have come to fear You.  Besides, if I may remind my Lord, ‘Remember’ the promise You made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  You are not a promise breaker ….”  The result?  “And the LORD REPENTED of the evil which he thought to do unto his people … And the LORD said, I have pardoned ACCORDING TO THY WORD” (Exodus 32:9-14; Numbers 14:13-20).  Wow!  A very reasonable God.

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The Jonah Show: Don’t Try This at Home (Part 1 of 2)

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1.  Disclaimer

“Don’t try this at home” is a popular catchphrase from the 1980s and 1990s.  It is the usual disclaimer and cautionary intro to TV shows featuring stunts, experiments, or other extreme activities considered dangerous for ordinary viewers, especially children, who might wish to attempt the actions shown.  While it still generally serves that earlier cautionary purpose, it is also deployed humorously in contexts that have little to do with potentially hazardous actions that the amateur viewer might wish to copy.  Here, I offer it as a telling intro to a common Bible story, which many have told from different perspectives.  Let’s call my story The Jonah Show, but remember, don’t try it at home.

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OCCULT VIRGINITIES: PRAYER POINT

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In one of our Nigeria universities, once upon a time, there was a campus female cult one of whose codes was to sleep with no man, and if any man should force them, he died.  Their virginity was one of their occult covenants for power in their territory.  They were virgins (or entered at some point into that state of celibacy) not because of a good upbringing or personal discipline or fear of God.  It was their sacrifice for occult power.

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THE SPIRITUALITY OF YOUR MONEY (Part 2 of 2)

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5.  The Voice of Your Gift

If gifts or monies were just the paper or coins in the hand, or the amount in the account; if there was no spirituality about money and gifts; if the character of the giver has nothing to do with the spirit of the gift, a passage like Deuteronomy 23:18 would be meaningless.  There, God strictly warns, for example, that “the wages of a harlot” and the proceeds from selling a dog – an unclean animal, must not be brought into His house, because “these are an abomination to the Lord your God” (NKJV).  “Abomination” is very strong language.

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THE SPIRITUALITY OF YOUR MONEY (Part 1 of 2)

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1.  Money Scanners

Even banks don’t usually take money at face value.  In critical cases, they pass money through a UV scanner to verify its status, which the naked eye might never detect.  Money is much more than the coins and paper notes or e-data that convey its value.  Money takes the spirit of its transaction.  Also, the property or service procured often takes the ‘name’ of the money used to purchase it.  What does all that mean?  The following story has answers…

Judas Iscariot had a contract with the haters of Jesus, to secretly ‘supply’ Him to them.  In the nocturnal boardroom of their mischief, the deal was signed for 30 pieces of silver.  The agreement was that he would take them to the Product site, from where they would take charge of the forward shipment themselves.

Like an eager supplier, Judas took them to where Jesus was holding a closed session with some of His staff and His Boss Abroad.  Judas made clever attempts to blend into the meeting as a late arrival.  He went straight to the target and gave Him a kiss.  That was the cue he had given to the business partners: whomever he kissed was the Product.  He kissed the Boss, gave Him away to His haters, then disappeared into the night.  Smart man.

Judas got his pay, but the nature of the transaction from which that money came tainted the money.  All dollar is dollar; all Euro is Euro; all Rupee is Rupee; all Yen is Yen; all Naira is Naira; all Cedi is Cedi, but it takes a spiritual scanner to further identify some money’s mystical character.  Judas’ silver coins, physically gleaming though they were, were spiritually tarnished by the corruption from which they had been earned.  To the natural eye, the coins were attractive; to the seeing eye, they were corroded and dangerous. Spiritual people are usually able to tell, as did the priests who had been dealing with Judas, mischievous though they were.

Down the lane, when Judas was struck by guilt and returned the same money to his erstwhile business partners, they made a very telling statement.  They said that certain monies carry the spirit of the transaction from which they were earned; that whereas all monies might look alike on the surface, there was a metaphysical dimension to them; that the money Judas had brought back was “the price of blood,” and therefore not spiritually safe to be put together with other monies, because it could corrupt what was there.  They were saying, in other words, that Judas’ money, even though ‘willingly’ given (or returned), was a potential pollutant, because it had come from transacting in “innocent blood.”  They understood the spirituality of money.  They understood that money is much more than the coins or paper or electronic codes that express its value.  They understood that money can carry a spirit, good or bad (Matthew 27:1-8).  Sadly, greed hurries, and it blinds.

Until that bloody transaction, the money with which Judas was paid had been holy, having been the devout offerings of worshippers.  When the temple authorities used it for a wicked transaction, its spiritual nature was accordingly altered.  The problem was not the money, whether it was crumpled notes or dented coins, whether it was dollars or pounds sterling.  The matter was the character of the transaction in which the money was involved.

 

2.  The Name of Your Purchase

Evil as those ‘business partners’ were, they understood the spirituality of money and were careful with whatever they received.  When Judas returned the money, they would not let it stay in the church account; they would not let it stay in their homes; none of them even dared to steal from it or gift themselves with any part of it.  They were unanimous that it had to depart immediately, before it should begin to cause trouble in their hands, like Achan’s loot in the camp of Israel (Joshua 7:10-13).  They decided promptly to buy a piece of land.  Anything.  Anywhere.  I am not sure if anyone was prepared to inspect the land before the purchase.  So far as it was available to be bought, that was sufficient.  “Good riddance,” as it is said, but that was only the beginning of another chapter.

Every purchase or receipt carries the product name.  The land that was bought with Judas’ money immediately took a name in the nature of the money that had purchased it.  That field became known as “the field of blood,” a name decided in the physical and spiritual realms by the character of the money that had purchased it.  If the same land had been bought with purer money than the ‘offering’ of a bloody kidnapper, it might have had a different name, maybe “Bethel,” or “The Field of God,” or “The House of Love,” or “The Place of Mercy” (Matthew 26:15; 27:5,7-8).  Judas’ money named (or renamed) the land with its particular bloody character.  Unfortunately, not everybody knows the ‘name’ of their house, or of their gift dress, their gift car, or their ‘free’ lunch in the archives of the spirit realm.  Like natures usually attract.

 

3.  Change of Status

Before the present purchase, that land used to be called The Potter’s Field.  It was a land where potters found fine clay for making beautiful vessels that decorated homes.  With the change of ownership, especially because of the kind of money that had been used to purchase it, there also came a change in the spiritual nature of the land.  Previously, it attracted artists, designers, craftsmen, workers in beauty, people who transformed ordinary mud into attractive vessels, specialists who gave great value to common clay.  Even holy men never feared to walk there.  With the coming of Judas, however, morticians took over where holy men and artisans used to prosper.  The same field began to attract corpses, death, decay, stench, fear, shame, and repulsion.  Holy men feared to tread there anymore, lest they be defiled with the bones of the dead (Matthew 23:27; Luke 11:44).

The kind of things that that field attracted seemed to have been determined by the nature or spirit of the money that had purchased it.  The money that was used to acquire it had come from transacting in the death of an innocent Person.  The land, accordingly, began to attract death. It became a cemetery for burying “strangers.”  If anyone was wondering about the mystery of the sudden change from Potter’s Field to “the field of blood,” from the making of beauty to a holding for corpses, from decorations to death, from the sounds of merry craftsmen to the silence and coldness of a cemetery, they only needed to check the details of its recent acquisition (Matthew 27:7-8; Acts 1:18-19).

 

4.  Third-Party Transactions

Sometimes people are careful about certain places and certain transactions, but they send their money to do things or go where they do not wish to be found themselves.  For instance, they might be embarrassed or terrified about going to a witch doctor’s shrine, yet not mind sending someone to consult there on their behalf; or they contribute to a general evil purpose, like a community’s annual fetish sacrifice, like a Halloween festival.  Although they had not personally undertaken those transactions, according to the story of Judas, what their money does is attributable to them.

It is reported in Acts 1:18, after Judas was dead, that he “purchased a field.”  Everyone knows that Judas did not do that transaction himself, yet it was credited to him because it was done with his funds.  The ‘receipt’ for the purchase of The Field of Blood bore the name of Mr Judas Iscariot.  We find the same principle in the matter of David and Uriah.  Even though Uriah was killed in battle by the enemy, God attributed that death to the man, far away from the crime scene, who had planned it.  God said that David was the killer, who had done it indirectly “with the sword of the children of Ammon” (2 Samuel 12:9).  It was their sword, but it was his hand; men saw them, but God saw him.

              From The Preacher’s diary,

January 2, 2026.

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