September 26 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Luke 22:47–53

Devotional

“An enemy multiplies kisses” (Prov. 27:6). Let me be on my guard when the world puts on a loving face, for if possible it will betray me the same way it did my Master—with a kiss. Whenever someone is about to stab the faith, he usually professes great reverence for it. Let me beware of the sleek-faced hypocrisy that serves as the armour-bearer to heresy and unfaithfulness. Knowing that evil deceives (2 Th. 2:10), let me be shrewd as a serpent (Mt 10:16) to detect and avoid the snare of the devil (1 Tim. 3:7, 2 Tim. 2:26). The young man lacking sense was led astray by the kiss of the loose woman; please so graciously instruct my soul all this day that the “persuasive words” of the world may have no effect upon me (Prov. 7). O Holy Spirit, please do not let me, a poor frail mortal, be betrayed with a kiss!

But what if I am guilty of the same accursed sin as Judas, that one doomed to destruction (Jn. 17:12)? I have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus; I am a member of his visible church; I sit at his communion table—all these are so many kisses of my lips. Am I sincere in them? If not, then I am a base traitor. Do I live in the world as carelessly as others do and still profess to be a follower of Jesus? Then I am exposing the gospel to ridicule; I am leading people to speak evil of the holy Name by which I am called. Surely if I act inconsistently in this way, then I am a Judas and it would be better for me if I had never been born (Mk. 14:21). Do I dare to hope that I am clear in this matter? Then, O Lord, please keep me so. O Lord, please make me sincere and true. Preserve me from every wrong path (Ps. 119:104). Never let me betray my Saviour. I do love you, Jesus, and even though I often grieve you, yet I do want to remain faithful, even to the point of death (Rev. 2:10). O God, please forbid that I should be a high-soaring professor of Christ and then fall at last into the lake of fire because I betrayed my Master with a kiss.

[March 25, morning]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.