Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

March 25– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“Are you betraying me with a kiss?” 

—Luke 22:48

 

The Proverbs tell us that “the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Since this is so, let me be on my guard when the world puts on a loving face. In time it will, if possible, betray me as it did my Master– with a kiss. Whenever a man is about to stab religion, he usually professes very great reverence for it. Let me beware of the angel-faced hypocrisy that bears the armor for heresy and infidelity to Christ. Knowing the power that sin has to deceive, let me detect and avoid the designs of the Enemy. Holy Spirit, don’t let me be betrayed by the kisses of this world!

Is it possible that I am guilty of the same accursed sin as Judas? I have been baptized into the name of Jesus; I am a member of his visible Church; I sit at the communion table, and all these are so many kisses of my lips. But, am I sincere in them? If not, I am a vile traitor. Do I value the same things as the world? If so, then I am causing his name to be ridiculed and cursed, and it would be better for me that I had never been born. I hope that I have an accurate understanding of my true condition.

And if I am sincere in Christ, then, O Lord, keep me this way! Preserve me from every false way. Never let me betray you, Jesus. I love you, and, though I often grieve you, I want to be faithful until death. O God, forbid that I should profess Christ with my lips and then fall at last into the lake of fire because I betrayed my Master with a kiss. [M&E]