Matthew 23:27-28

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Matthew 23:27-28


I was mentioning "whited sepulchres" the other day (don't ask how these things come up in conversation), and realized that I wasn't really coming through... so, I thought I would share one of Christ's analogies with you... that way, if we ever have a conversation about it, you'll know where I am coming from. :)  And, maybe you can casually drop it in conversation and see what kind of a reaction you get. :)
Seriously though... I think that this is one of my greatest fears.  That who I am on the inside and who I am on the outside don't match up... that my ideals and my soul are on totally different pages.  I don't want to be a whited sepulchre (a good word for the championship in a spelling bee, by the way), and sometimes I feel like I am going there... that people think I am really cool, but really, I’m not.  I guess the best thing to do when you feel like that is to work harder at living what you profess.  Christ said this to a group of people who, in the church, were the poster children for righteous living.  They lived the letter of the law through and through... were hyper-obedient.  when God said keep the sabbath day holy, they sat down and decided whether lighting a match on the sabbath would be considered work... I mean, these people *cared* about the law.  But Christ condemned them.  Interesting to relate to today, and to ourselves.  Are we so concentrated on the letter of the law sometimes that we condemn the people around us for not following a law as well as we do?  Does our obedience match our love for God?  Do we look great on the outside, while on the inside we are full of filth and rottenness?  And if so... to any extent... what are we going to do about it?  With Christ's help, we can become beautiful inwardly as well as outwardly... let's give it a try.