"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also."
Matthew 23:25-26
I don't think that we ever like to think about some of these scriptures where Christ rebukes people as being about us. We want them to be about other people... we're the good guys, they're the bad guys, and of course they deserve to be rebuked and we don't. :) ... And although it would be great if that were true, all too often it isn't.
So much of our lives is external... about the way we look to others, about our image... and I think we often neglect the internal part. The part that often wants the bad stuff. The part that doesn't really care if someone else gets hurt or offended. The part that sometimes doesn't even care about eternity because right NOW is what matters to us.
Maybe something to think about is if we are trying to hide it from other people... probably down deep, that isn't really who we want to be. It's hard to break out of who we are, and become who we would rather be. It's not only hard, it is tortuous sometimes. Heartbreaking. It's like ... going through the refiner's fire. :) It burns away all of us, except the purest, best part. No one is saying it is easy. But to be who we truly want to be...? Probably worth it. More than worth it. To like ourselves. To never regret who we are or have to worry about hiding any of it. Pretty cool.
It's really, really easy to be a hypocrite. Today, though, let's work on who we are inside. Let's clean house instead of trying to hide it from the world.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also."
Matthew 23:25-26
I don't think that we ever like to think about some of these scriptures where Christ rebukes people as being about us. We want them to be about other people... we're the good guys, they're the bad guys, and of course they deserve to be rebuked and we don't. :) ... And although it would be great if that were true, all too often it isn't.
So much of our lives is external... about the way we look to others, about our image... and I think we often neglect the internal part. The part that often wants the bad stuff. The part that doesn't really care if someone else gets hurt or offended. The part that sometimes doesn't even care about eternity because right NOW is what matters to us.
Maybe something to think about is if we are trying to hide it from other people... probably down deep, that isn't really who we want to be. It's hard to break out of who we are, and become who we would rather be. It's not only hard, it is tortuous sometimes. Heartbreaking. It's like ... going through the refiner's fire. :) It burns away all of us, except the purest, best part. No one is saying it is easy. But to be who we truly want to be...? Probably worth it. More than worth it. To like ourselves. To never regret who we are or have to worry about hiding any of it. Pretty cool.
It's really, really easy to be a hypocrite. Today, though, let's work on who we are inside. Let's clean house instead of trying to hide it from the world.
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