I don't read the Bible anywhere near as much as I should. It's one of my biggest shortcomings as a believer, and that is saying something since I have my own very long list of shortcomings. At one point or another, I read the following chapter, Matthew 23, but for some reason (probably the Spirit's guidance), I opened it up tonight when I opened the New Testament to a random location to do a little reading:
13"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.[c]
15"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
16"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' 19You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
23"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
Teachings like this are why I have come to truly understand just how impotent we are to force virtue on others. What do we gain by teaching others to be good on the outside, where that teaching will always stay, when the inside does not change? Shall we continue to hide the ugly truth of who and what we are by more ritual righteousness? The world is indeed going to hell around us, but is that not the nature of mankind when allowed to express itself fully?
If we want change, we must first realize that we cannot have it through our own selves and actions.
I think this is where many miss the point from the scripture 'judge not, lest ye be judged. For as YOU judge, so shall you be judged." That doesn't mean we're not to make judgements, but that we're not to make them hypocritically. We need to look in the mirror first.
Good thoughts, Mike, and an excellent exposition of the passage. The tree on the outside can only bare TRULY good fruit if it is strongly rooted. I like this post.
It makes me think an awful lot of Congress and the Senate, a den of wickedness and lies, dead men's bones and everything unclean...