Let It Alone

How I wish I had learned early in my Christian life and ministry to let some things alone, especially those that are commanded in the Scripture. Like the old adage, “Let sleeping dogs lie.” But we will be to awaken them. And when this occurs, it’s usually to our own detriment. When we begin to meddle in these forbidden areas, there is always a small voice in one’s ear that says, in a gentle but firm way, “Let it alone.”

There are three particular times I need to heed this warning. First, I’m told to “Let her alone.” Why be critical of those who have “chosen that good part.” A quiet devotion that pours one’s life out on Him will generally bring the wrath of the “sisters” and preacher brethren. Our age is characterized by hectic, endless, frustrating service, that results in very little being accomplished for the glory of God. Today, we are told to give our best to the poor, not Him, and to spend all our time in the hot kitchen preparing and performing for Him in service. Enjoying Him comes last in the order of this man-made menu.

“Let him alone,” says our Lord. So he doesn't do things exactly like you believe they should be done. He’s still preaching Christ, and no man doing this can speak lightly of Him. How many of us are like those described by the translators of the King James Bible, in their dedicatory, “...maligned by self conceited brethren, who run their own ways, and give liking unto nothing, but what is framed by themselves and hammered on their anvil.”

“Let them alone.” You will never convince the self-righteous extremists of the errors of their ways. A Pharisee remains a Pharisee. He’s not interested in my heart, or that of anyone else’s; he’s not even concerned with his own. He is only interested in how he looks to the brethren in his own group, and being accepted of them. Our Lord took a lot of His precious time with people from all walks of life, but very little with the Pharisees, and it was usually confrontational. It’s not that these legalists won’t get it; they can’t get it. In the case with most of them, the die has been cast; the cement has been set. These people spend all their time trying to bind people; Jesus spent His in loosening them.

“Abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thine own hurt..." (2 Chronicles 25:19)