| Exodus 19:16-21:21, Matthew 23:13-39, Psalm 28:1-9, Proverbs 7:1-5
“Yes, woe upon you, Pharisees and you other religious leaders – hypocrites! For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things – justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn’t leave the more important things undone. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.” Matthew 23:23-24
Lord, help us. I mean that sincerely. Most born-again people go through a stage I call the legalistic phase. It’s where we get, as Galatians says, bewitched. We forget what Jesus saved us from. We forget the type of people we were. We forget how grateful we were and how aware we were of how little we had to do with the transformation. All of sudden, we are caught up in the legalities of religion, trying to impress the right, spiritual people, trying to hold up that level of holiness through our good works. Somewhere down the line we crossed over from grace and we have an expectation on ourselves and everyone around us as well, including lost folks who haven’t a clue. You may wonder how a blessing turned into such a burden.
If we promote law without love we will end up in the Pharisaical phase that just won’t end; self-righteous and a stench in God’s nose, doing all the duties on the outside without a true relationship with God on the inside. In all your doing, don’t forget about loving God and loving people and showing them the Christ you met. The One who showed you mercy by loving you out of your sin. It is the goodness of God that drew us to repentance. (Romans 2:4)
PRAYER: Lord, bring me back to my first love. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I truly want to know and love You and be able to pass that love onto those around me. I don’t want to do all of the works and forget about the importance of meeting the needs of people around me. Love You Jesus… |
