CLEANING ONLY THE OUTSIDE OF THE CUP
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
I don't know if you have noticed that this series of "WOES" that Jesus mentioned to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23: is really about what they have tried to hide on the inside while they have tried to fool the people around them into thinking that they have it all together.
This is a much bigger problem for today's church than we might imagine, and there are many people to tend to at least temporarily fall into this as a trap from Satan. We are warned to not think more highly of ourselves than we should, and one of the basic traps this world uses is to have us to begin to compare ourselves to those who are around us. There is a big difference in the ways we look if we compare sins with others around us instead of continuing to place our lives up against the perfection of Christ. Once again let us simplify what we are doing. If we compare ourselves to others we can always come up with excuses for our behavior. God's word does not leave us any wiggle room as the law is given to convict our heart of sin. The simple truth remains that we cannot find salvation without a good relationship with Jesus Christ. While the law is written to convict us of the sin in our life the Father has introduced us to the Spirit of the law as well that also brings mercy with it, but only through Christ.
This big difference between our comparison to others and our comparison to the word of God is always a game changer. If we compare ourselves to the perfection of Christ we are always trying to reach for perfection spiritually, and when we compare ourselves to those around us we only see a different kind of sin played out in front of us. We are all in the same boat with sin and therefore cannot point fingers at one another to lessen our own sin debt. Grace and mercy come from the Father alone, and for us, that means that our only way of forgiveness is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Scribes and Pharisees did not want a spiritual savior; they wanted a physical savior from the Roman oppression. The great hypocrisy today remains the same; it is that we want to make our faith into a physical act instead of a spiritual transformation. We can clean and polish the outside appearance all that we want to, but unless w clean the inside of the cup where all of the real filth is hiding we will have accomplished very little.
The cleansing of our lives must start from the inside and go outward. Just as anything that is cleaned that way we may find that those around us will not believe we are clean in that way at first because unlike God, the people around us cannot see on the inside of us; they will see only the results of our being cleaned on the inside. The result will be a great difference in what we do on the outside.
That simply means that even without being able to see the changes people around us begin to feel the effects of the change within us on the inside. When we allow God to clean us in that way we are clean indeed completely. We must rely on God alone in this process, may you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
I don't know if you have noticed that this series of "WOES" that Jesus mentioned to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23: is really about what they have tried to hide on the inside while they have tried to fool the people around them into thinking that they have it all together.
This is a much bigger problem for today's church than we might imagine, and there are many people to tend to at least temporarily fall into this as a trap from Satan. We are warned to not think more highly of ourselves than we should, and one of the basic traps this world uses is to have us to begin to compare ourselves to those who are around us. There is a big difference in the ways we look if we compare sins with others around us instead of continuing to place our lives up against the perfection of Christ. Once again let us simplify what we are doing. If we compare ourselves to others we can always come up with excuses for our behavior. God's word does not leave us any wiggle room as the law is given to convict our heart of sin. The simple truth remains that we cannot find salvation without a good relationship with Jesus Christ. While the law is written to convict us of the sin in our life the Father has introduced us to the Spirit of the law as well that also brings mercy with it, but only through Christ.
This big difference between our comparison to others and our comparison to the word of God is always a game changer. If we compare ourselves to the perfection of Christ we are always trying to reach for perfection spiritually, and when we compare ourselves to those around us we only see a different kind of sin played out in front of us. We are all in the same boat with sin and therefore cannot point fingers at one another to lessen our own sin debt. Grace and mercy come from the Father alone, and for us, that means that our only way of forgiveness is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Scribes and Pharisees did not want a spiritual savior; they wanted a physical savior from the Roman oppression. The great hypocrisy today remains the same; it is that we want to make our faith into a physical act instead of a spiritual transformation. We can clean and polish the outside appearance all that we want to, but unless w clean the inside of the cup where all of the real filth is hiding we will have accomplished very little.
The cleansing of our lives must start from the inside and go outward. Just as anything that is cleaned that way we may find that those around us will not believe we are clean in that way at first because unlike God, the people around us cannot see on the inside of us; they will see only the results of our being cleaned on the inside. The result will be a great difference in what we do on the outside.
That simply means that even without being able to see the changes people around us begin to feel the effects of the change within us on the inside. When we allow God to clean us in that way we are clean indeed completely. We must rely on God alone in this process, may you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Comments
Post a Comment