In Luke 11:37-54, Jesus rebukes the religious leaders.
In verse 39, He accuses them of cleaning the outside
of the cup while inside they are full of greed and
wickedness.
Many Christians have become like these Pharisees. In
our pursuit of God we have lost our growth in intimacy
with Him. We have exchanged growth for complacency,
and in our complacency we work on our appearances. We
want to do what we want. Meanwhile we try to make our
appearances to be those of ?role model Christians?. So
many of us are rotting away on the inside while we
spruce up the outside. We appear righteous by not
watching pornographic films or getting wasted on
alcoholic beverages while in reality, we may be
nothing but hypocritical liars. We cheat, gossip,
slander, and live for self-pleasure. How many of us
walk in unconditional love? Still, we claim our walk
with Christ is superior. We avoid appearing evil
though we are very evil. This is why Jesus said, “Many
will call me Lord, Lord, but will not enter the
kingdom of God.”
The worst thing about it is we not only wallow in our
own deceptions and sin, but we criticize others
because they don’t “appear” righteous. Hebrews 10:14
says, “…because by one sacrifice he has made perfect
forever those who are being made holy.” Righteousness
is found only through Christ. Holiness is found in
pursuing growth in intimacy with Him, which is through
obedience. We should not judge appearances.
We all have to let go of our own fear and pride,
become honest about our sin, and clean the inside of
the cup by growing closer to Jesus. If we do this, we
might run the risk of sometimes appearing to be
“unholy”, but at least we won’t be hypocrites. All the
world wants to see is an honest Christian, not a
perfect one.
Clean the inside of the cup, then the outside will
change.
1 Timothy 1:1-11 and chapter 4
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Luke 4:17-19
“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.'”Back to Devotionals Page
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