Day 162

Hypocrisy denounced by "woes"

Matthew 23

Key Verses: 3, 5, 12, 17, 24, 28, 33, 37

It is easy to have a double standard in life, one standard we expect from other people, and one standard we apply to ourselves. We expect other drivers to use their turn signals and provide adequate braking space when they pull in front of us, but do we do the same? Do we expect our kids to pick up their things, but our things are in disarray? Do we discipline our children when they use bad language, but they we let a few choice words fly when we are mad? We need to practice what we preach. Our actions need to match our words.

And we also need to be careful that we don’t do the right thing just so people will see us doing the right thing. Our character and our conduct need to be consistent with each other. We need to discard the rules we apply to others, but not to ourselves. The Pharisees had so many rules for living that they often lived in contraction. Through these rules they attempted to keep themselves and others from breaking the Commandments, but the rules often became a means of breaking the Commandments.

This is the problem with a rules based religious system. We can never keep all the rules and our focus becomes rule keeping rather than intimacy with God. And when we focus on the rules we get lost in the forest. We lose our direction and purpose. We become less and less compassionate, less and less like God.

But it is for freedom that we have been set free, freedom to serve God fully, in righteousness and holiness. We are free to obey, free to live a life pleasing to God. And that life will bring the most benefit in the long run.

Jesus hits the Pharisees right where they live. He calls them on the carpet for their hypocrisy. He does not pacify them with politically correct words. He speaks the Truth. He also speaks prophetically, knowing what will happen after His death and resurrection. Jerusalem is destroyed by the Romans. They are scattered and removed from power. Everything they longed for would be forcefully removed.

God longs to gather us and protect us. But are we willing to be gathered on His terms, or do we insist on ours?