Let It Go!

I am reading in Matthew 23, and it is a very long passage, so I will only quote parts of it, and I will summarize some of it, too. But Matthew 23 is primarily dedicated to Jesus’ words describing the character and the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the scribes of his day. But there are many who profess faith in Jesus Christ today, at least here in America, who could be described much in the same way, for they profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, but it is on the outside only, not from the heart, and not in practice.

Pharisees Character Traits

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were skilled at hypocrisy. Jesus described them in this way (based off Matthew 23):

1. They do not practice what they preach

2. They do their deeds to be seen by others

3. They love places of honor; they love attention

4. They lead people to hell on the promise of heaven

5. They profess one thing but live the opposite

6. They adhere to religious rituals but not to God’s righteousness

7. They appear clean (righteous) outwardly but inwardly are evil

8. They are full of wicked deeds, greed, hypocrisy and self-indulgence

9. They persecute those who are truly righteous in God’s sight

So, Jesus told his disciples that since the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, they were to do and to observe whatever they told them to do, but they were not to do the works that the Pharisees and scribes did. So, this was not a command for them to obey anything sinful or anything against the expressed will of God for our lives. We have several biblical examples of this, too, in Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Jesus, Peter, John, and Paul. They never compromised obedience to God to obey human authority.

Okay, so what is the summarization of this passage of Scripture? Besides the numeration of the character traits of the scribes and Pharisees given above, what would you say is the overall message of this passage of Scripture to be applied to our lives today?

Well, we have in America many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ. But it appears that few are those who are actually living the life that Jesus laid out for his people to live and to obey. Many are like these Pharisees, making outward shows or performance of being of God, of being Christians, of being the faithful of God and his servants because they go through the motions of religious performance and religious rituals. And so from all outward appearances, they are “good Christians,” sometimes well-liked by others.

And many of them are those who are indeed shutting the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces because they are teaching them lies which make them feel good, but which do not confront them with their sinful practices, and which do not speak the truth in love to them to let them know that if they continue in those sinful practices that they will not inherit eternal life with God. Instead they give them this idea that a mere profession of faith in Christ secures heaven for them, but despite how they live and walk in sin.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Thus, those who are believing them and who are making surface level professions of faith in Jesus Christ, are the many who are still deliberately and habitually and premeditatedly sinning against the Lord and against other humans in living immoral, wicked, adulterous, corrupt, dishonest, depraved, improper, vile, reckless, foolish, unfaithful, and sexually immoral lives. And they are not repentant, and many feel no conscience and no remorse for their evil, for they are being told to just “Claim who you are in Christ.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” (Matthew 23:25-26 ESV)

Now this isn’t just about trying to look good on the outside while secretly or privately living in self-indulgence and wickedness and immorality. This also has to do with how many people are being taught to deal with their sinful practices if they express at all a desire to change, which could be true or could be a lie. Many of them are being taught to ignore the heart issues and to try to put into place certain behavioral modification techniques to try to curb their sinful desires. And usually that only works temporarily.

So they are trying to clean the outside without first cleaning the inside. Behavioral modification can only go so far, but the Bible teaches us that the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. So, if the heart is not first cleansed, and if the evil stored up in the heart is left inside, the heart will continue to produce evil, and not good (Lu 6:45; Matt 15:17-20).

So, Jesus Christ, in his speech here, brought out into the open what the scribes and the Pharisees were keeping hidden in the darkness. Now, that did not change their hearts, but that is the first step to true repentance and to genuine walks of faith in Jesus Christ. For if we hold on to what is stored up in our sinful human hearts, and if we refuse to let it go, we will never walk in true freedom from slavery to sin. The inside needs to be cleansed first, and then the outside will be truth and righteousness, and not fakery.

For example, if you have sinned sexually against your spouse, either via the viewing of porn and self-gratification, or via seductive and sensual conversations with others to whom you are not married, or via extra-marital affairs, either same sex or opposite sex, whether in the past or in the present, but you have not owned up to it, then you need to confess it first to God but then to your spouse, grieve over it in truth, and plead for forgiveness, but in truth, not in fakery. And then let that memory go.

And if you are holding on to pride, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, and bitter jealousy from things past or things present, you need to confess those, forgive those who you believe sinned against you, and let all of this go. For the longer you hold on to any or all of this the longer you are going to be weighed down and unable to truly be free of your addiction to sin (or addiction to specific sins), for that sin is a result of what is in your heart. You have to come clean or you will never be free from what has a hold on you.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:37-38 ESV)

And our Lord is giving this same message today to all who profess his name but who are living immoral and impure and wicked lives, in practice, and who have been unwilling to let go of what is stored up in their hearts so that they will finally be free from their bondage to sin and to be able to walk in holiness and in obedience to the Lord in the power of God. For they are prideful and stubborn and resentful and bitter, and so they refuse to let it go and to let the Lord clean that ugliness out of their hearts. So very sad!

Broken Cord

An Original Work / August 29, 2018

Your bond is broken with your Lord and Savior

And your testimony is separate from Him.

Your words not matching your actions today.

Repent of your sin and bow down and pray.

Live what you testify in truth always.

Purity’s lacking in your life and witness,

For you profess one thing, but other you do.

Not moral, spiritual. Still of the flesh.

Not living in truth to what you confess.

Lying about it puts you in a mess.

Living a lie is your practice, ‘tis true of you.

Masquerade righteousness – none of it true.

Your heart is not given to your Lord God.

Because of how you live, you are a fraud.

Turn from your sin and give your life to God.

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