Beware of Prejudice and Desire
By C. H. Pridgeon
BE careful not to mistake the voice of prejudice and the voice of desire for the voice of the Spirit. Let us notice in connection with this thought the passage in Acts 26:9: “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” That is what Paul said; then let us connect with that, Phil. 3:4-6: “Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Blameless. Paul said he was living a blameless life, living up to conscience, doing the thing he thought he ought to do; but at that very time he was persecuting the church. What was the matter with the apostle? He listened to the voice of God speaking through his conscience. In his heart he was saying, “I must persecute this new sect that has arisen.” Instead of hearing God’s voice, he was hearing the voice of his own prejudice and false zeal, saying, “Persecute them.” He mistook the voice of his own prejudice for the voice of God. This thought may cut to the quick, for we are naturally people of prejudice, prejudiced in favor of our own loved ones. We are prejudiced against our enemies and those who speak evil of us. We are prejudiced in favor of our own way, in favor of our own education, and in favor of our own opinions. Much of the disorder in Christendom is on account of that kind of thing. Paul was perfectly honest, but he was listening to the voice of prejudice and to the voice of desire. He desired that Judaism should be propagated, and was so zealous to accomplish this purpose, that he would not stop for anything in the way of accomplishing that purpose. If you hold a shell to your ear, you can hear the sound of the sea, but that sound is the sound of the air, or the intonation of the circulation of your own blood. Often when we test things and take them before God in prayer, in place of hearing God’s will we hear our own prejudices and our own desires, and we say, “It is the voice of God.” Be careful about that. On the lines of affection one must be specially guarded. We have been obliged from Scriptural reasons to refuse many times to join together in wedlock an unconverted and a converted person. It would not be Scriptural. They might say: “We have prayed about this, and have really made it a subject of prayer. The answer we have gotten from the Lord is that it is all right, I will be the means of the conversion of the other person if I do this.” We say, “We would be afraid to perform the ceremony for you, God’s Word is too plain.” We are afraid of anything that is not in accordance with the Word of God. You had better wait not only till they confess Christ, but until they prove that they trust God. They follow desire, and mistake it for the voice of God. That was what Balaam did; he did not know how much was his own desire. When God said “No” to Balaam the first time, that ought to have satisfied him. Balaam could not tell the voice of his own desire from the voice of God. He went by that, and God was angry. It was disobedience to God. This whole subject is of vital importance.—C. H. Pridgeon.