Hypocrites!
Matthew 23:23-24, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”
The typical American approach to spirituality is to look good on the outside despite what may be happening in the heart, to follow a checklist form of religion rather than to allow one’s heart to be transformed by God. This is actually even more common in the Bible Belt than other places, and leads to those outside the church criticizing believers as hypocrites! Jesus called the Pharisees of his day to accountability not only for the small things, but for all things as he still calls to us today. If all we have is his fine example of how to live, we are in deep trouble, for on our own we surely fail. But He has come that we may have life and have it more abundantly; he is the one who promises to transplant our heart of stone with a heart of flesh, that we man live out his new life with by the love that he alone can give!
Come Holy Spirit, bring your light into every dark place, that we may take captive every thought by the power of your good news!
ESV Lectionary
The typical American approach to spirituality is to look good on the outside despite what may be happening in the heart, to follow a checklist form of religion rather than to allow one’s heart to be transformed by God. This is actually even more common in the Bible Belt than other places, and leads to those outside the church criticizing believers as hypocrites! Jesus called the Pharisees of his day to accountability not only for the small things, but for all things as he still calls to us today. If all we have is his fine example of how to live, we are in deep trouble, for on our own we surely fail. But He has come that we may have life and have it more abundantly; he is the one who promises to transplant our heart of stone with a heart of flesh, that we man live out his new life with by the love that he alone can give!
Come Holy Spirit, bring your light into every dark place, that we may take captive every thought by the power of your good news!
ESV Lectionary
posted by BenLaws at 4:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home