Jeremiah 1 to 3 Are you a pretender? Jeremiah, who tried to get out of telling the nation about their sin, tells the nation that they are just playing pretend about their relationship with Yahweh. Like the church in Ephesus, they had lost their first love and pretended to love God. They want God to forgive, but they fail to repent. In chapter 2, God says: he Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, how devoted you were to me in your early years. I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, but now you wander to the nations that serve idols I said do NOT do. I am your God; I am a jealous God who will not share my glory with another.

How like Judah we are. Like them, we see the destructiveness of sin, but like the blind man who cannot see, we say it won’t happen to us. But, unfortunately, our prisons are full of those who bought into that lie, and our world is full of sinners who said the same thing. They were and are the pretenders. Their faith is not genuine. They will not hear the words of James about Abraham, who believed God, and his works demonstrated that belief.

This is a wake-up call. Are you listening? Will you pretend, or will you be honest?