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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean
the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and
self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish,
and then the outside also will be clean.”
Matthew 23:25-26
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you let someone see a different you on
the outside than you really are on the inside?
A lot of people do. They are good at making
it appear they are clean and good when in reality they are really sinful and
corrupt, sort of like a personality double agent.
We hear about this behavior all the time
either on the news or from other sources. Sometimes we experience it
first-hand. We think we know somebody, believing they are good and upright
people, and then they get caught in some transgressive matter going on behind
the scenes and it exposes who they really are within. Usually in these
instances, it leaves the people who thought they knew who someone was by
surprise, finding it hard to believe that the perpetrator could really have
done what they were accused of.
The audience listening to Jesus must have
felt like this as He addressed the Jewish religious leaders of His day. In this
series, we have read how He derided the Pharisees, teachers of the law,
scribes, and other Jewish authorities for the sinful work they were doing,
allegedly in the name of God. The truth was that these leaders were not as
close to God as they led others to believe and therein was their biggest problem
next to being too arrogant to even see it. The latter condition is what led
Jesus to call them “blind guides”. They were supposed to be steering the people
in the way God wanted but they were really leading them down the road to
damnation and destruction away from the salvation God wanted them to have
through Jesus, His Son.
As we see in today’s passage, Jesus gets
right to the root of the hypocritical woeful behavior practiced by the Jewish
religious authorities. Look again at His words here:
“Woe to you, teachers
of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and
dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee!
First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be
clean.” Matthew 23:25-26
Note here that the Pharisees and teachers
of the law were called out by Jesus for putting on an outer appearance of
righteousness and holiness while inside they were actually filled with greed
and self-indulgence. This greed for power and prestige was at the root of their
unwillingness to yield to Jesus, even when God had sent Him to be the Messiah
and Savior of the world. As Jesus slowly pulled more and more Jews away from
the Jewish religious leader’s flock, they increasingly felt threatened and
began plotting how they might have their adversary eliminated.
Where was the source of the problem for the
Pharisees and teachers of the law?
It was in the heart.
For it was there that sinful self-indulgence
dwelled and it literally was poisoning the Jewish authorities from the inside
out. Soon their internal transgressions would transfer to external actions as
they would falsely accuse Jesus and arrest Him, before convincing the Romans to
take custody of Him for beating and execution.
If a change in woeful behavior was to take
place, Jesus told the Pharisees and teachers of the law that they would first
have to turn all their intention to cleaning themselves up inside, driving out
the sin that was controlling them. If they did that, then their actions would
follow and all that they would do would be clean and pleasing in the Lord’s
sight.
Friends, the word of God is speaking
powerfully to us through these verses today. For many people are just like the
Pharisees and teachers of the law, putting on a front that they are good and virtuous
when in fact they are teeming with sin and wickedness inside.
We need to always follow the guidance of
Jesus, ensuring we give attention to our interior self. For if we seek to carry
out the will of God with all our heart and mind, then the actions we take will
be actions He desires and the end result will be fulfillment of the things He
wants done, things that will result in godly, holy outcomes.
For if we do this, then we can avoid yet
one more woeful behavior.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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