For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.
Corrupt religion starts at the top. An example is how the Pharisees of Jesus' day turned today's verse it on its head. We see in today's verse that God's law in the beginning ranked the consecrated altar as being "most holy", but by the time Jesus came along, the religious leaders had changed the law into a tradition they had crafted for their own convenience, saying:
If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on the altar, he is bound by his oath.
Jesus was furious at this corruption of God's law.
"You are fools!" Jesus said.
In Matthew 23, Jesus spoke bluntly and harshly to the religious leaders who were actors when it came to religion. The teachers appeared righteous on the outside, but inside they were full of hypocrisy and wickedness. They were snakes, vipers, with the spirit of murder in their hearts to kill true righteousness wherever they encountered it.
The word of God was corrupted for convenience. The teachers taught the law, things like tithing, but they neglected the more important parts of the law such as justice, mercy and faithfulness. The teachers knew the law and taught the law, but they held themselves to be above the law.
"People, listen and obey the teaching of the teachers, but don't do what they do, because the teachers do not practice what they preach," said Jesus.
Everything the religious leaders did was for show.
They were wonderful at evangelism. They would travel over land and sea to make a single convert only to turn that convert into twice as much as a son of hell than he was.
Grim stuff in Matthew 23.
It almost seems that we are being taught not to trust religious leaders, and there is some merit to the thought. Hypocrits strain gnats but swallow camels! We are responsible, each of us, to learn to recognise hypocrisy, especially hypocrisy that occurs at the head of the class.
Character matters. Jesus is warning us not to submit blindly to any teacher or preacher who talks the Bible talk but does not practice it in real life. If everything they do is done for men to see, don't follow them. If the man at the top of your religious order loves the place of honor, or loves fame, or wants a seat with the movers and shakers of the world, do not blindly follow that leader into his sin.
Jesus clearly identifies, in Matthew 23, the sort of leader the church should have:
But you are not to be called "rabbi," for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth "father," for you have one Father, and He is in heaven. Nor are you to be called "teacher," for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant..
The greatest among you will be your servant. The two characteristics of a church leader are fidelity to the word of God and a servant's heart.
That means you personally need to study your Bible. How else will you know that what you are being taught is true? Corruption happens so inconspicuously that unless you really know your Bible, a slick hypocrite will be able to convince you of something as obviously wrong as what the Pharisees taught the people during Jesus' day. Would you have recognised the error in teaching that the animal on the altar is of greater value and weight than the altar itself?
Do you recognise the errors being taught today? There are a number of them, and quite conspicuous.
Who have you tasked with your spiritual oversight? Who is teaching your children? Do they know the Bible? More importantly, do they do the Bible?
Has your church leader a servant's heart?
Be careful not to blindly absorb Bible teaching without doing your own homework. For a preacher/teacher to be a true preacher/teacher, that person must not only know the Word of God, but s/he must also do the Word of God in daily life.
Where you find falseness, listen to the Bible lesson, yes, because God can even speak though a donkey, but do not pattern your life and decisions after the hypocrite's example. God will sort it out in the end, but, make sure you and your house are right. Pray for the hypocrites you encounter, because, unless Jesus opens their blind eyes, a bad day is soon coming for them:
Upon you hypocrites will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah... I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
So, a time of self-examination is clearly warranted.
- Am I in any way acting a part regarding my religious devotion?
- Do I have a servant's heart?
- Am I studying to know the Bible for myself?
Let us consecrate the altars of our hearts. And let us pray for wisdom to know truth from error, and then the strength, Holy Spirit strength, to humbly walk in the truth. Each of us walks the narrow road, some ahead, some behind.
May all who come behind us find us faithful!
0 comments:
Post a Comment