Isaiah 29:13

One of the verses from our Bible study really stood out to me. I went to the internet to look it up, study it somewhat, and decided to post some of the different versions for comparison.

Because of our environment in which we work and because of our upbringing in most cases, either brought up in church all of our lives or were subjected to many people who were “churchy” people, it would be very easy for us to fall into “legalism” and/or become “rote.” How to worship has been demonstrated to us in some way or another. We’ve learned how to talk the Christian verbiage and we’ve learned its okay to express our worship outwardly, etc.

Isa. 29:13-

NET © The sovereign master says, “These people say they are loyal to me; they say wonderful things about me, but they are not really loyal to me. Their worship consists of nothing but man-made ritual.

NIV © The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

NASB © Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,

NLT © And so the Lord says, "These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote.

MSG © The Master said: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it,

BBE © And the Lord said, because this people come near to me with their mouths, and give honor to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is false, a rule given them by the teaching of men;

NRSV © The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;

NKJV © Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

Look at these definitions:

Legalism-strict adherence to a literal interpretation of a law, rule or religious or moral code; the belief that good deeds are required for entrance into Heaven

Rote- mechanical repetition of something so that it is remembered, often without real understanding of its meaning or significance.

Our challenge as leaders, as Christians is not to fall into becoming rote, mechanical, but leading others into worship out of a very much alive relationship with Christ. It’s more than us meeting Him at our new birth but knowing Him daily, intimately, and being taught by Him through our personal time with Him. When we become mechanical, we’re the losers. We’ve missed out and so do others who we wish to direct towards knowing Christ more intimately. I pray that our worship and our personal relationships grow from the intimacy that Christ desires to have with each of His children and that His God-ness falls fresh upon us, and that His word penetrates our hearts to a new and fresh place which causes us to become different people because we’ve had an encounter with Him.