Dirty Underwear

These evil people, who refuse to listen to Me, who walk in the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship-they will be like this underwear, of no use whatsoever. – Jeremiah 13:10 HCSB

Jeremiah 13 is definitely one for the “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” books. God told His prophet to go buy some linen underwear, to put it on, and to be careful to not get it wet.[1] Okay, why was that last part necessary? I have no idea because God shortly came back to Jeremiah saying, “Go at once to the Euphrates River and hide it in a rocky crevice.”[2]

The obedient prophet did as he was told, while probably looking both ways, hoping no one would see and question why he was burying dirty skivvies. A long time later, Elohim got back to His main man and said basically, “Okay, it’s time. They’re done now.”[3]

Of course, when he went to get them, Jeremiah discovered that the garment was completely ruined by the combination of dirt, humidity and high heat. They were not only unusable as underwear, they were of no use whatsoever.[4]

God said that this is what we are like when we stubbornly refuse to listen to Him. When we choose to make our own gods and follow them, we are just like those ruined, filthy undies – totally unusable. It doesn’t matter if we choose to name our gods God, YHWH, Elohim, Adonai, Jesus or whatever. If we choose to try to make Him conform to our image of what He should be like, we are still practicing idolatry.

Christ has liberated us to freedom, but not anarchy. [5] Shouldn’t that be incentive to follow Him in obedience? Shouldn’t that drive us to take the opportunity to discipline ourselves to loving service?[6] Instead, many Christians choose to use their freedom as license to sin.[7]

Tell me, if you only cleaned your house when you felt like it, what would it look like? If you only worked when you felt like it, how much useful income would you possess? If you ate what you felt like, when you felt like it, in the quantities your taste buds desired, how useful would your body be?

Discipline is not punishment. Limitations on our activities are not imprisoning. They are truly liberating. An Olympic athlete who disciplines his body for years seems as free as a bird on the gymnastics floor. But that usefulness, that power, that beauty would not have been possible without rules, guidelines, diets and accountability.

Attend church, not when you feel like it but when God does. Read your Bible, not for the enlightenment you will receive, but for the knowledge that faithful obedience has its rewards.[8] Keep yourself unstained by the world[9] - unless of course you’d like to be like…well…you know.

[1] Jeremiah 13:1
[2] Jeremiah 13:4
[3] Jeremiah 13:6
[4] Jeremiah 13:7
[5] Galatians 5:1; James 1:25
[6] Galatians 5:13-15
[7] Joshua 22:29; Romans 6:1-2
[8] Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 12:10
[9] James 1:26-27