November 23, 2025
"A Blurry Distinction"
Malachi 3:13-18
Maybe some of you remember the movie called "The Karate Kid." It was a movie that came out about 40 years ago. If you remember the movie or don't, it doesn't matter. I'll give you a brief summary of what happens in the movie.
A boy and his mother move to the West Coast. It's especially difficult for the boy to make the transition because he doesn't seem to fit in. The kids at the school he attends don't accept him. As a matter of fact, one group of boys terrorizes him, beating him up several times. In one incident, however, a Japanese man comes to the boy's rescue. After that they form a friendship.
The boy wants to learn karate from the Japanese man in order to defend himself in the future. After some heated discussion, the Japanese man finally agrees to teach the boy, but not in a manner that the boy expects. The Japanese man has the boy do quite a few chores around his house and tells him to pay attention to his hand movements as he is doing the chores. As he is painting he is to pay attention to the movement of his wrists. It's an up-and-down motion. As he is waxing the Japanese man's car he is to pay attention to the circular motion of his hands.
After a few days of this the boy becomes frustrated. He feels the Japanese man is treating him like a slave and nothing more. Besides, he isn't teaching him karate as they had originally agreed.
The boy doesn't at all see the worth of what he is doing, even though the Japanese man has a very clever plan in mind. Well, the boy is ready to give up. He doesn't see any point in going on. It isn't worth going through the motions anymore, and so the boy decides not to return. At that point the Japanese man tells him why he had him pay attention to the movements of his hands as he did the chores. As it turns out those movements would help the boy execute various karate moves. It was the Japanese man's way of training the boy.
In our text from Malachi we come across a similar thing. Those who follow God see no point in continuing to do so. They go through all the motions of obeying the Lord yet don't see any benefit in doing so. They are no better off than those who don't follow the Lord.
But then the Lord steps in and says there is great worth in sticking to Him. It may not appear so now, but in the end it will be much clearer. One day there will be a clear distinction between those who fear God and those who don't. Those who love God and keep His commandments will live forever with Him. And those who don't will not live with God forever. This is what God tells us in our text for today.
Does it seem like the wicked are getting away with murder in our day and age? It seems there is no justice. Those who do right suffer, and those who do wrong seem to prosper. It isn't fair. And what's the point of doing right when there seems to be no reward connected with it? Are we any better off by following God than those who don't?
I'm sure there are times when we feel like giving up our Christian identity. It doesn't do us any good. We're ready to walk away from God. He is of no earthly good to us.
Maybe we need to see things differently and not as what they seem to be. The boy in the Karate Kid movie didn't think outside the box. He simply thought he was being exploited by the Japanese man. He didn't trust the man's method. But the man had good intentions. The boy was too myopic to see the good in what the Japanese man was having him do. It was actually all to the boy's benefit.
God has good intentions for us even though we can't always see them. When we go through a difficult time it would do us some good to see how God is trying to make us a better and stronger person through it. He is getting us ready for when He appears again. We need to scratch beyond the surface and look for the good in all circumstances and see how God is using that good to make us more like Him.
Our walk with God can be painful but He's there ensuring that everything happens for our good. We simply have to trust Him.
When we look at the world it seems the wicked are prospering. There is no denying that. Some of the richest people in the world are atheists or agnostics. From a material standpoint, they are doing better than we are. They are doing better, and they don't even believe in God. But are they really happy? Do they know what true happiness is? No, they don't. In that sense we are better off than they are. We have the joy of Jesus. Now if you don't value that kind of happiness, I don't know what to tell you. True happiness comes from knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Maybe we should stop making comparisons. Life might be a little easier for us to handle then. Maybe we shouldn't expect God to bless us more in a material sense than an unbeliever. Maybe we shouldn't expect to be treated better than everyone else, including non-believers. Maybe our expectations are too high. Maybe we should be content with the way God does things. He makes it rain on the just and unjust alike. With that we need to be content.
In the end, however, God will make a distinction between us and those who don't believe in Him. In this world that isn't evident. But a day is coming when we will truly be at an advantage over the unbeliever. And on that day, we will be ever so thankful that we believed in the Lord. Just hang in there and ask God to give us strength to make it to that day.
In the meantime, maybe we ought to be concerned about standing out from unbelievers. Even though it appears that we fair no better than those who don't believe in God, as our text mentions, and it looks like God makes no distinction between believers and unbelievers in this world, perhaps we can take it upon ourselves to act not like the world does but act according to God's will. Then people will see that there is a great difference between us and those who don't believe in God. My point is simple: if we want a distinction to be made between believers and unbelievers, then we need to set the bar in terms of how we conduct ourselves. People will know that we belong to God when they see that we don't act like the wicked. We should be concerned about not being lumped in with criminals and the immoral. Our good conduct should cause us to stand out from these. When people see us they should see a noticeable difference in us.
Let me sum up what I've said in order to help you understand what our text is telling us. First, it seems that believers fair no better than unbelievers and that God doesn't make a distinction between the two in this world. This is the complaint in our text for today from the prophet Malachi. God's response is that at the end of time there will be a clear distinction made between believers and unbelievers. On the last day everyone will see who believed in God during his lifetime and who didn't. But until then, we simply trust that God knows what He is doing with our lives. We trust that He has our good in mind.
And secondly, I said that we should try to make a distinction between us and unbelievers by how we conduct ourselves. When people look at us they should see the love of Jesus radiating from us. These are the two points that I've set before you today.
Someday the benefit of our faith in God will be more apparent. But that doesn't mean it is worth nothing now. What we endure now on this earth is a prerequisite for the joy to come.
I pray that we will remain strong in the Lord because in the end our faith in Him will be worth it. We will be taken out of this world to enjoy an eternal life of bliss and happiness. And those who don't believe in the Lord will no longer be among us. God will truly separate us.
But until then, let us live for the Lord with all our being so that we might stand out in the world. May the world see that we are different. And may the world turn to the Lord because of us.