Morning, March 25

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?"

  Luke 22:48

   "The kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Let me be on my guard when the
   world puts on a loving face, for it will, if possible, betray me as it
   did my Master, with a kiss. Whenever a man is about to stab religion,
   he usually professes very great reverence for it. Let me beware of the
   sleek-faced hypocrisy which is armour-bearer to heresy and infidelity.
   Knowing the deceivableness of unrighteousness, let me be wise as a
   serpent to detect and avoid the designs of the enemy. The young man,
   void of understanding, was led astray by the kiss of the strange woman:
   may my soul be so graciously instructed all this day, that "the much
   fair speech" of the world may have no effect upon me. Holy Spirit, let
   me not, a poor frail son of man, be betrayed with a kiss!

   But what if I should be guilty of the same accursed sin as Judas, that
   son of perdition? I have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus;
   I am a member of his visible Church; I sit at the communion table: all
   these are so many kisses of my lips. Am I sincere in them? If not, I am
   a base traitor. Do I live in the world as carelessly as others do, and
   yet make a profession of being a follower of Jesus? Then I must expose
   religion to ridicule, and lead men to speak evil of the holy name by
   which I am called. Surely if I act thus inconsistently I am a Judas,
   and it were better for me that I had never been born. Dare I hope that
   I am clear in this matter? Then, O Lord, keep me so. O Lord, make me
   sincere and true. Preserve me from every false way. Never let me betray
   my Saviour. I do love thee, Jesus, and though I often grieve thee, yet
   I would desire to abide faithful even unto death. O God, forbid that I
   should be a high-soaring professor, and then fall at last into the lake
   of fire, because I betrayed my Master with a kiss.