"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy--full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too. "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs--beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. -- Matthew 23: 25-28 (NLT)
Note the part where Jesus says that if we would just concentrate on the inside of who we are then the outside by default will be clean too! If we would just concentrate on the inside of who the church is then the outside by default will be clean too! We do not serve ourselves in our walk but sometimes we can fall into that line of thinking. How we look or are promoted becomes more important than what we are doing for God. Likewise, we do not serve the church in our walk but the God who founded it. The God who maintains it. The God who sustains it. That is why at the end of the day it does not matter what fancy programs or clever marketing strategies we employ. At the end of the day the Gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient enough. As Paul described his service he said he only wanted to know Christ and Him crucified. Because in the end that is all that matters.
The Prophet Amos brought his prophecies to the 10 northern tribes of Israel right before God would pass judgment upon them and permanently scatter them. Similarly, He would send prophets to Judah before the Babylonian Empire would take them captive. Like He would send Jesus to the religious Pharisees of His day before Rome leveled Jerusalem to the ground. Like He is sending people today with warnings about where we are heading. Oh that we would not give our sacrifice and offerings unto God with an impure heart. Oh that we would not offer up our hymns without lifting up our lives first. Oh that we would accept the hard Word from God even if it is about our own walk or our own church. To ensure that God will actually be with us; just as we say He is.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- February 28, 2012
