Message: The religious were being publicly rebuked and exposed as
Jesus spoke to the people and told them that the religious only appeared to be
clean on the surface as they made a show of themselves acting righteous while demanding
the people to follow after a level of righteousness that they themselves were
not inwardly keeping.
Command: Follow the message that the religious
teach, but don’t follow what they do. Care about our inward condition more than
our outward appearance and don’t elevate our status or allow anyone else to
because we were all intended to be equals.
Promise: Those who humble themselves will be
exalted
Warning: Those who exalt themselves will be
humbled
Application: We have the potential to turn literally any
good thing into a show if we aren’t doing it for the right reasons. Sure, our
good works can still produce some good things but if our motives are wrong we
will become bitter, ugly people as we do good things. We might help someone but
we probably won’t reach them at a heart level. We can even continue on this
awesome reading plan and learn a ton of things but still act like a self-righteous
jerk to people around us if it doesn’t change us on the inside. I have thought
about that often and my personal application to all of this is to do the things
that are called “righteous”, but in every one of those things I need to submit
my heart before God and ask him to help me do them for his honor and not for
the opportunity to look good or gain favor with anyone else. Any time those
kinds of feelings rise up in anything I do I ask God to help me. A while back I
really comprehended the scriptures in 1 Peter and in James that tells us that
God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. I really need God and his
favor on my life so I don’t ever want to position myself in a way that would
make God resist me. Even if I gained the favor and honor of people, it just
wouldn’t be worth that kind of trade.
