Today's Scripture: Matthew 23
This is one the first passages that I taught, and also one of my favorites. I can still remember asking my mentor what the best explanation of a Woe was. He described it to me in several ways but the one that seemed to stick with me was the saying "it stinks to be you". Basically Jesus was trying to say to the teachers and Pharisees, your life is a mess.
From the outside looking in at their lives it looked like they had it all together, but as soon as you get past the pretty and clean exterior you find a funky, bad smelling, mess. This passage is great because we get to read, in Jesus' own words, how He feels about those who put on a religious show for the people around them. We aren't fooling God when we do this, and this passage tells us that He has no problem pointing out where we are faking it.
It is in my personal opinion that the most common reason for hypocrisy and "churchy" games among believers, is when we stop realizing that it's not about us. Church, worship, bible study, prayer, service none of those things are about us. They ARE about God and what he wants from and for us as His children. That is what the teachers and Pharisees missed, they got so wrapped up in defining what they were about, that they stopped being about God.
As a beliver I have to constantly ask myself a question: "Am I doing what I am doing because it is what God wants, or am I doing it because it makes me look good?"
It's a hard question to answer honestly, but we must if we truly want God to be the center of our lives.
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