Unflinching Fidelity to God
Luke 4:8
And Jesus answered and said to him, Get you behind me, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God…


Be not in haste to be rich or to be famous or to be admired. "Make haste slowly," says the proverb, and it means just this — Make haste in God's way; take everything you can get from God, take nothing from the devil. Most powerfully was this illustrated in the life of the noble Havelock. For many years in the army he struggled against the arbitrary character of official patronage, and the odious abuses of the purchase system; and he, who in the end was the redeemer of the Indian Empire, was for a dreary while only a lieutenant. Yet how did he bear himself under it? As a Christian soldier, after the pattern of the Lord here, he placed the worship of the Lord first, and that he would not renounce for anything that man could name. Hear his words, and they are worthy of being written in letters of gold; yea, the spirit which utters them manifests a nobler courage than that which won so many fights and rescued the forlorn garrison at Lucknow. Here they are: "Let me ask you, my good friend, what you mean by prejudices against me. Tell me plainly. I am not aware of any. Old and others used to tell me that it was believed at the Horse Guards and in other quarters that I professed to fear God, as well as to honour the Queen, and that Lord Hill and others had made up their minds that a man could not be at once a saint and a soldier. Now, I dare say any such authorities must be right, notwithstanding the example of Colonel Gardiner, Cromwell, and Gustavus Adolphus. But, if so, all I can say is, that their bit of red ribbon was very ill bestowed upon me; for I humbly trust that in that great matter I should not change my opinions and practice, though it rained garters and coronets as the reward of apostasy."

(W. M. Taylor, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

WEB: Jesus answered him, "Get behind me Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.'"




True Worship: the Essentials of True Worship
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