Picture description: Prayer
Picture copyright: V.
“These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13)
When we say some people are paying lip service, it means their deeds do not follow their words.
In Old Testament times, God was displeased when he saw that people honoured his name without taking real actions. Clergymen in those days had a lot of biblical knowledge and devised strict rules for followers. They asked people to love one another, but did love others which God asked us to do. God spoke His disappointment through Isaiah, a prophet, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
A lot of phrases, such as "two-edged sword" and " an eye for an eye", are taken from the English Bible. Learning the stories behind these idioms is fun, and can help boost your vocabulary. Click here to find out now!