The Useless Church

“I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands." - Malachi 1:10

For years, prophet after prophet had been the mouthpiece for God and declared Israel's need for repentance. In the last book of the Old Testament, God declared that powerful message again through His prophet Malachi. Malachi addresses Israel’s apathy, lack of fulfilling their commitments, lack of making God their first priority and ends the book asking the Israelites where they stand. Their failure to follow God with all their heart has been a persistent problem for the Israelites during the entire Old Testament. We not only see the Israelites disobedience but we also see just how patient God is. He did not have to endure their disobedience and the fact that He did (and still does) shows us just how much He loves them.

Here in Malachi chapter one, God addresses the apathy of His people. Apathy is a lack of interest, enthusiasm or concern. Passion does not exist when apathy is present. Chapter one is primarily addressed to the priests. If the priests are apathetic towards serving God then the people will certainly not behave any better. The priests had lost their reverent fear of the Lord and apathy had settled in. This was proven by the fact that the priests were animals for sacrifice that were blind, lame or sick. The people were to bring their best to sacrifice to the Lord but they were bringing their leftovers and the priests accepted their despicable sacrifices. God is so displeased with the apathy of the priests, the apathy of the people and their terrible sacrifices that He declares His wishes for the temple. God declares “I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you…” It’s clear that God is saying that it would be better to close the temple all together than to keep doing what they were doing. 

Recently I was vacuuming the floor and I noticed that the vacuum was not picking up like it should but nonetheless I kept on vacuuming. I kept vacuuming but the floor was not getting any cleaner. Finally, I stopped and I began to inspect the vacuum to see if it was blocked. Sure enough, the hoses were blocked and that was why the floor was not getting any cleaner. I was going through the motions of vacuuming but I really was not getting anything accomplished. I was just going through the motions. I wonder what God thinks of our churches today. How many does He look at and is pleased with their service and ministry in His name? How many does He look at and declares the same thing about them as He did to the temple in Malachi 1? How many of our churches does God think would do better if they shut their doors than continue on the way they are going?

Let’s bring these thoughts a little bit closer to home. First of all, as a Pastor I have to continually examine myself in light of God’s standards and His Word. As Christians, you need to continually examine yourself as well. We both need to ask ourselves a few questions. Are we fearing the Lord or are we living in open defiance to Him? Are we giving our absolute best to God or do we only have leftovers for God? Examine your time, money, energy, resources. Does the best go to God or somewhere else? Basically, are we just going through the motions? Apathetic Christians are pew warmers that have no interest, enthusiasm, concern or passion for advancing the Kingdom of God. Apathetic Christians create apathetic churches where the members are more concerned about themselves than reaching the lost, seeking God’s will or obeying God’s Word. Finally, let these words from Revelation serve as a warning and a reminder to the apathetic church: “Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” – Revelation 2:5