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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, August 4, 2022
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Hypocrites: Whitewashed Tombs Bible Verse:Matthew 23:27-32 (ESV) "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?" Message:
Christ uses the wonderful metaphor of a “whitewashed tomb” to describe the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. It applies with full force today, for hypocrisy is still with us: Outwardly religious people, following the appearance of religious piety, but insincere and corrupt in their heart.
Anti-Christian factions will call all Christians “hypocrites”, because none of us live up to the standards we preach and teach. All of us sometimes get angry, react with pride instead of humility, fail to love our neighbor as ourself, etc. But to call this “hypocrisy” is erroneous. Hypocrisy does not consist of espousing a standard that one hasn't met, but rather, pretending to have met that standard when one has fallen short.
The key to avoiding hypocrisy is humility. If we are truly humble and do not try to pretend we are perfect or superior, then we admit we have fallen short. Sincerity cannot be hypocritical. We must always remember that salvation is a gift we have been given, not an achievement we have accomplished.
There is an enormous difference, however, when we consider people who would teach others to deny God; we cannot judge others, for judgment is reserved to Christ. But we may certainly oppose false teachings. And a “whitewashed tomb full of rotting bodies” is a great metaphor for the increasingly prevalent atheist world-view of secular society. (Why hasn't somebody written a book about Hollywood called The Whitewashed Tomb?)
Hypocrisy
Paul, in Titus 1:10-16, advises Titus on dealing with men who were “teaching things they should not teach.” His advice? “[R]eprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to . . . commandments of men who turn away from the truth.” We must approach this with caution; for humility, self-control and harmony are express virtues in Christian intercourse. And we must also remember, Titus was a learned elder under the watchful eye of the Apostle Paul himself, and the persons to be reproved were teaching in the name of Christ, not atheist or polytheistic outsiders.
How far we might go when interjecting ourselves into debates over immorality in the secular world is a difficult issue. We cannot be cowards in spreading the Gospel. But as a whole, the New Testament seems to treat the church as a separate world. Christ was vitriolic in His denunciation of false religious teachers, but silent concerning the terrible immorality of the Romans.
Meditation : Prayer : Now all glory to you, mighty God, who is able to keep me from falling away and will bring me with great joy into your glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to you who alone are God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are yours before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time,.......Amen |
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