In The Word
Read: Luke 11:37-52
Woes upon the Pharisees
37 Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in and reclined at the table. 38 When the Pharisee saw this, he was surprised that Jesus had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. 39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish; but your inside is full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish ones, did He who made the outside not make the inside also? 41 But give that which is within as a charitable gift, and then all things are clean for you.
42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every kind of garden herb, and yet you ignore justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the seat of honor in the synagogues and personal greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unseen tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”
45 One of the lawyers *said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.” 46 But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you load people with burdens that are hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. 48 So you are witnesses and you approve of the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 For this reason also, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill, and some they will persecute, 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
More times than not, when someone comes to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are told that all of the external things that identify themselves with sin first have to be taken away. While this type of conversion is pleasing to the eye of the onlooker, it may not be a true conversion at all. You see, one can learn the behavior of a Christian, but never allow their heart and mind to be transformed. A real conversion may not show immediately on the outside, but something has happened on the inside.
Yeshua addressed this backward way of thinking when He sat to have a meal with a Pharisee. The Pharisee noticed that Yeshua did not perform the hand-cleansing ceremony before he sat down to eat. Yeshua responded in Luke 11:39-40, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also?” Yeshua knew that they were more concerned with the outward appearance of a man than with the inward cleanliness of his soul.
We believers need to spend more time asking the Holy Spirit to purify our hearts, which will eventually cause us to shine on the outside. Even though something may look a little tarnished on the outside, it does not mean that the cleansing process has not started on the inside. So let’s pray this prayer: Holy Spirit, search me deep within and cleanse me inside and out. Amen.