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Topic: Hypocrisy Forbidden!
[DCLM Daily Manna 8 May 2020 Daily Devotional by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi]
Text: Luke 11:37-54
37 And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?
41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.
42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
43 Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
45 Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.
46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
53 And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:
54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.
KEY VERSE: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them” (Luke 11:44).
MESSAGE:
To be hypocritical is to claim to be a child of God when you know full well that your life does not measure up to His holy standard. It is also to demand from others a level of integrity that is absent from one’s life. Hypocrisy misrepresents God and therefore, seeks to make Him a liar before men.
It was unusual for Jesus to go to a man’s house to condemn him. But this was what He did when invited for dinner by “a certain Pharisee”. His host condemned Him first for not washing His hands and feet which they deemed to have been contaminated by the Lord’s interaction with people they considered unclean. But in this, He saw an opportunity to speak truth to His host and the gathering of Scribes, Pharisees and lawyers that were present for the dinner. He chided them for their unwillingness to help the poor while insisting on the payment of tithe. He rebuked them for making high demands from the ordinary people, while excusing themselves from such rigour. He accused them of making other people unclean through their sullied spiritual lives. He condemned them not just for persecuting prophets of God but rejecting God Himself. He chided them for erroneously interpreting the Scriptures and therefore, misleading and preventing people from coming to Christ. But rather than being contrite and sober, they sought for ways to trap Him into making blasphemous statements.
Unlike the Pharisees and Scribes, believers must not hold others to the injunctions of Scriptures while disobeying those same provisions. The best way to influence people positively is to let our lives express what God expects from them.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: If your life were a book, what will others read from it?
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Corinthians 1-4
