Ramses Shaffy and Focus: "Watch The Ugly People"

Being a fan of the Dutch jazz-rock band, Focus, I bought a box set of their CDs. It contains their albums from 1970 to 1976, as well as plenty of bonus tracks, live performances, and videos. What a treasure trove for a die-hard fan!

Focus performed with a vocalist named Ramses Shaffy in 1970. This is one of two tracks they recorded together. Listen to one of those songs here.

I believe Mr. Shaffy is singing about mentally and spiritually ugly people. He warns in this song to beware of those who will suck you dry like a spider does to a fly. 

The Bible mentions such predatory people in many places. One of those is recorded in Romans 16:17 (Bible in Basic English). "Now, it is my desire, brothers, that you will take note of those who are causing division and trouble among you, quite against the teaching which was given to you: and keep away from them."

The early churches had  their share of "ugly people" who caused trouble. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:18 (BBE), "For first of all, it has come to my ears that when you come together in the church, there are divisions among you, and I take the statement to be true in part."

This was common among all churches, as it is today. Jude 1:4 (BBE) warns, "For certain men have come among you secretly, marked out before in the holy Writings for this evil fate, men without the fear of God, turning his grace into an unclean thing, and false to our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."

Jesus himself warned the seven churches in what's now Turkey about these sort of infiltrators. One example is his observation of the church in Pergamos. Revelation 2:14 and 15 (BBE) reads, "But I have some things against you, because you have with you those who keep the teaching of Balaam, by whose suggestion Balak made the children of Israel go out of the right way, taking food which was offered to false gods, and going after the desires of the flesh. And you have those who keep the teaching of the Nicolaitans."

Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan has used infiltration as his weapon against God. Beware of anybody, even me, who has a "revelation" about some Bible verse. Check it out against the rest of Holy Scripture to see if it matches what God said in other places. Check the context of those verses too.

If Christ hasn't come by Monday, I hope to tell you about a polite robber.