THROUGHTS ON MALACHI's SECOND ORACLE

Malachi 1:6-2:9

Malachi’s oracle on love, gives way to an oracle on unfaithfulness, or to put it another way, the lack of integrity.  Integrity is adherence to moral and ethical princples; soundness of moral character; honesty. In ministry it is vital for the servant of God. As I ponder Malachi’s second oracle, I see five actions that hinder and compromise the servant and his ministries integrity.

1. Offering God less than the best (1:7-8). The servant of God is to have a single heart, mind, and will. Our heart, mind, and will are to be acceptable to God. Forstyhe once said “The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master.” We offer God less than the best when we serve with a divided heart, mind, and will. We are offering less than the best and our integrity is compromised.
2. Giving in to routine and boredom (1:13).  When we minster out of routine, we lose our freshness and wonder of God and His work. This happens when care is replaced with necessity. We need love, but not our love; it is the love of Christ than compels us. God does not ask us to work up our love, but to let His love work in us (Rom. 5:5). Servants are to be channels of His love, but routine and boredom can block that love. When that happens we lose our integrity.
3. The lack of accountability (2:1). The lack of holding oneself accountable to God is duplicity. Duplicity is lying to oneself and can lead to rebellion. When the Word speaks simply to our head, and not our heart, we can easily rationalize away our accountability. Intellectualism is when the head does not transfer the knowledge to the heart, and we forget the commandment is for us, blinding us to our accountability and integrity.
4. Losing our reverence for God (2:5). Reverence is a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe. We lose it when God becomes common. We lose awe when we start looking at ourselves, not God. When we take for granted His presence and blessing in our ministry.  How can we maintain our integrity when we make God common?
5. Showing partiality in ministry (2:9). Partiality compromises integrity and can lead to divisions.

Warren Wiersbe wrote some years ago THE INTEGRITY CRISIS. That crisis has not lessened but rather has grown in the church. Wiersbe in the book notes: “a person with integrity is not divided (that’s duplicity) or merely pretending (that’s hypocrisy)” [page 21]. Duplicity and hypocrisy are exactly what Malachi is dealing with in the second oracle.