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Revelation 14
3 They sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand, those who had been redeemed out of the earth. 4 These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. 5 In their mouth was found no lie, for they are blameless.
In their mouth was found no lie
He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest. (Revelation 1:16)
Moses said to Yahweh, "Oh, Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." Yahweh said to him, "Who made man's mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn't it I, Yahweh? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak." (Exodus 4:10-12)
In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called to another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!" The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then I said, "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!"
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. He touched my mouth with it, and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven." I heard the Lord's voice, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:1-8)
Who may ascend to Yahweh's hill? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from Yahweh, righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face--even Jacob. Selah. (Psalms 24:3-6)
Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies. Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it. Yahweh's eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry. Yahweh's face is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. (Psalms 34:12-16)
All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing crooked or perverse in them. (Proverbs 8:8)
They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:9)
The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity, nor speak lies, neither will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they will feed and lie down, and no one will make them afraid. (Zephaniah 3:13)
"These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate," says Yahweh. (Zechariah 8:16-17)
The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. (Malachi 2:6)
It could be easy to conclude that we need to work hard to control what comes out of our mouth, and to an extent this might be true. But far more important is to have what is behind coming out of our mouth dealt with effectively, that is according to Jesus' perspective.
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.
Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit. You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things. I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:31-37)
The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and don't do the things which I say? (Luke 6:45-46)
but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, (Colossians 3:8-9)
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, who did not sin, "neither was deceit found in his mouth." Who, when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; (1 Peter 2:21-23)
For, "He who would love life, and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil, and do good. Let him seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." (1 Peter 3:10-12)
even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn't receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; (2 Thessalonians 2:9-11)
they are blameless
In the Hebrew this word has the following meaning from which I assembled this sampling of many verses throughout Scripture relating to this characteristic that identifies the Lamb-followers.
tamiym: entire (literally, figuratively or morally); also integrity, truth: without blemish, complete, full, perfect, sincerity, sound, without spot, undefiled, upright, whole.
This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless. (Genesis 17:1)
You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God. (Deuteronomy 18:13)
As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God? God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect. (2 Samuel 22:31-33)
With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect. With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. (2 Samuel 22:26-27)
This introduces us to an important principle related to reflection, that of projection. Not only do we reflect what we actually imagine God to be like, but we also tend to project back onto God what we are like. Our preferences, prejudices and traditions form a filter that distorts how we perceive and interpret God's interactions with us in all our circumstances. This means that if we are trusting and blameless, we will see God as trustworthy and blameless just as Jesus reveals Him to be. But if we are always suspicious, fault-finding, critical or desiring revenge, these distorted base cravings of the flesh will cause us to view God in a distorted light, believing that He is in fact like the serpent accused Him of being, knowing both good and evil.
The serpent said to the woman, "You won't surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5)
Believing this fundamental lie about what motivates God in His relations with us, always produces fear of punishment which in turn induces us to look for someone else to blame for our mistakes or sins. This is clearly seen in the story of Adam and Eve right after they bit into that lie that infected their hearts from the father of the ultimate lie, Satan. When asked the simple question about what had so altered their disposition towards their loving Creator, they both instantly began to blame others, and even God. What is clear is that they were assuming that God had now come to punish them with death, and their survival instincts went into warp drive seeking some way to avoid punishment by shifting responsibility to someone else, even on God.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. (1 John 4:17-18 NRSV)
This link of fear with punishment is one of the most potent strongholds the enemy maintains inside most every human being keeping us easily manipulated and exploited. So long as we believe God is in the punishing business we will be unable to appreciate and embrace the truth of His unconditional love, compassion and tenderness towards us all the time. There may be no other story with more references to this attribute of blameless, along with a great deal of blaming, than as seen in the story of Job. This became so troublesome in Job's life he began to view it as a liability.
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. (Job 1:1)
Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil." (Job 1:8)
Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause." (Job 2:3)
Isn't your piety your confidence? Isn't the integrity of your ways your hope? (Job 4:6 Eliphaz)
Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evil-doers. (Job 8:20 Bildad)
Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse. I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life. It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked. (Job 9:20-22)
I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. (Job 12:4)
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect? (Job 22:3 Eliphaz)
(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity); (Job 31:6)
Job comes to the conclusion that the problem that had to be addressed was that the scales by which he was being tried were rigged against him unfairly. What he failed to see, and what most of us also fail to discern, is that the entire system of measuring according to balance scales is invalid, and that our hope does not come in convincing God to make adjustments to our balance sheets of moral value, but that our perspective of sin is skewed from inside of it instead of seeing God's side. We get a hint of this in how the sea of glass is first described in Exodus 24 as a glass ceiling above the heads of God's invited guests who came to eat with Him. They could only see translucent outlines of something far more spectacular on the upper side. By contrast we find in Revelation that God is the one on trial, and His throne on the upper side is on this sea of glass as the floor of heaven. Here the truth begins to emerge that the problem of evil involves our ignorance, our fears and distortions that induce distrust because of believed lies the enemy uses to viciously attack His reputation since the outset of the war. It is our thinking that needs adjusting to realign with the truth, not God's.
Blameless also means we stop blaming altogether. Blame was one of the very first symptoms that appeared after sin infected the human psyche, and it has plagued us ever since. Those who are blameless stop looking for others to blame for the problems of evil, and instead focus their attention on the glory of God's goodness, graciousness, kindness and relentless love for all His children. Blame believes someone must be punished, and that justice forces God to impose due punishment for evil. This is rooted in the psychopathic lies the enemy successfully uses to keep us afraid of God and distrustful of His heart. This is the true cause of evil, and salvation is designed to heal us from this.
Yahweh, who shall dwell in your sanctuary? Who shall live on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart; (Psalms 15:1-2)
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression. (Psalms 19:13)
Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering. (Psalms 26:1)
Yahweh knows the days of the perfect. Their inheritance shall be forever. (Psalms 37:18)
Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace. (Psalms 37:37)
Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. (Psalms 51:4)
Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to Yahweh's law. (Psalms 119:1)
The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. (Proverbs 11:5)
Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. (Proverbs 19:1)
Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich. (Proverbs 28:6)
The bloodthirsty hate a man of integrity; and they seek the life of the upright. (Proverbs 29:10)
You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you. (Song of Solomon 4:7)
The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil-- he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure. (Isaiah 33:14-16)
You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:15)
This unrighteousness was distortions of the truth of God's character that blamed Him for evil.
Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion nor fault, because he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. (Daniel 6:4)
Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless? (Matthew 12:5)
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the priestly division of Abijah. He had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. (Luke 1:5-6)
Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, "I find no basis for a charge against this man." (Luke 23:4)
Herein I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men. (Acts 24:16)
I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:4-8)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love; (Ephesians 1:3-4)
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)
This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
Do all things without murmurings and disputes, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn't run in vain nor labor in vain. (Philippians 2:14-16)
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. However, what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. (Philippians 3:5-7)
You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and blameless before him, if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant. (Colossians 1:21-23)
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you; and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you, to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13)
May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money; they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons. (1 Timothy 3:8-10 NRSV)
I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you; if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior. For the overseer must be blameless, as God's steward; not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain; but given to hospitality, as a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled; holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him. (Titus 1:5-9)
But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable. Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; (Hebrews 7:24-26)
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh: how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13-14)
knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ; (1 Peter 1:18-19)
But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without blemish and blameless in his sight. (2 Peter 3:13-14)
Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)
