James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Jeremiah 7:8
‘A REFUGE OF LIES’
‘Lying words, that cannot profit.’
I. God tears open the ‘lying words’ of many who worship Him, and what does He find?—Hypocrisy, fraud, a festering mass of corruption, a fixed determination that nothing shall be true which interferes with their pleasures, their emoluments, their privileges. Love, brotherhood, humility, mercy, faith; these things they do not believe in. What they seek is the maintenance of their own position, the advancement of their own interest. To all such He says, ‘Ye shall become as Shiloh,’ bankrupt, deserted, lost.
II. So let me be true, for I worship the God of truth.
(1) True to myself. In my thoughts seeking honestly to gain the verity and certainty of things, especially the things which are highest and deepest. In my speech uttering only what I feel. In my life, abhorring the very appearance of dissimulation and craft.
(2) True to my neighbour, and, most of all, true to my God. Trusting Him with a clinging trust. Feeling for Him a fervent affection. Following hard after Him whatever the cost may be. Begging Him daily to see if there is any wicked way in me, and to lead me in the way everlasting.
Illustration
‘The privileges of a form of godliness are often the pride and confidence of those that are strangers and enemies to the power of it. It is common for those that are furthest from God to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.’