Noteworthy the Nevertheless

“In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah [Uzziah] the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, began to reign.  He was sixteen years old, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.  And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.  Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.  And the Lord touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the household, governing the people of the land…  And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Jotham his son reigned in his place…

“In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign.  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem…  And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah had done.” 2 Kings 15:1-7,32-34

The biblical summary of Uzziah’s famous reign was stellar: over half a century, five decades, right in the eyes of the Lord. Nevertheless. Uzziah was by grace endowed with a will bent to following his God. He sought both Him and wise counsel as he fortified Judah with prosperity and peace. Nevertheless Uzziah was not careful to remove the high places that tempted the people to worship false gods. He was wholehearted except this one thing. That precarious inaction was one for which Uzziah would answer. The seemingly small slit opening the heart to idolatry became his own undoing as he fell to pride. (2 Chronicles 26:5-21)

The Lord seeks a whole heart, an undivided heart, and dangerous is the mindset that flirts with nonethelesses. The human condition that prizes effort and weighs good deeds is wont to excuse small omissions, deem small sins unnecessary to remove, or unable to cause much trouble. But sin is sin is sin, and the stain that is our inheritance dooms us to destruction apart from Christ. (Mark 10:17-22; James 2:10; 1 John 1:8)

Are there detrimental habits we’ve grown so accustomed to that we see no need to change? Have we become complacent coddling ‘small’ sins, deeming them benign, or comparatively less destructive or offensive than another’s? Where have we allowed nonethelesses to infringe upon purity of relationships, work, or worship, and what will we do about them?

“O for a heart to praise my God,
a heart from sin set free;
a heart that’s sprinkled with the blood
so freely shed for me:

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
my great Redeemer’s throne;
where only Christ is heard to speak,
where Jesus reigns alone:

A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
believing, true, and clean,
which neither life nor death can part
from him that dwells within:

A heart in every thought renewed,
and full of love divine;
perfect and right and pure and good —
a copy, Lord, of thine.” ~Charles Wesley (1742)

Lord, expose every nonetheless I entertain, remove it, and give me an undivided heart to serve, please, and worship You. (Psalm 86:11)