It’s so easy to let hypocritical attitudes creep into our hearts and allow ourselves to become religious pretenders. We may look good on the outside, but have hearts full of envy, greed, anger, worry, and self-righteousness. In the process, we lose the joy of our salvation and find ourselves just going through the motions of the Christian life. But there is an even worse danger in being a religious pretender.
Welcome to Soul Survival where I blog through the Bible in a Year along with Bible studies and other Christian living posts. This year I’ve added a couple of new features. First, check out the “Free Resources” tab at the top. You’ll find a downloadable, printable PDF with “Going Deeper Study Questions” for each Bible in a Year post. And … this year I’m also reading through the Bible on YouTube. You can check out my channel here. The daily emails now have a link to both the Soul Survival posts and the YouTube videos. I hope you’ll sign up.
Today’s Reading:
Exodus 23 & 24
Psalm 19.1-6
Proverbs 6.30-31
Matthew 23.23-39
Could You Be a Religious Pretender?
Matthew 23.23-39
Greater Condemnation
Beginning in yesterday’s reading, Jesus, in talking to the scribes and Pharisees, used the phrase “woe to you” eight times. He called them hypocrites, religious pretenders who attempted to look good on the outside with all their religious deeds. But he said they were full of spiritual death inside. They lacked love and mercy, justice and faith. They believed their religious activities and long public prayers made them better than everyone else. And most importantly, they refused to see themselves as sinners in need of a Savior.
They loved themselves instead of the poor and needy and legalistically carried out the law against others without mercy. In Matthew 23.24, He called them “blind guides.” They not only couldn’t see where they were going but were leading others astray. They couldn’t or wouldn’t see their own sinful hearts. Because, despite their knowledge of the law, they remained religious pretenders, He said they would receive “greater condemnation.”
Straining Gnats & Swallowing Camels
He said they “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” The law designated certain things as clean and others as unclean, including animals. Unclean animals, like camels, could be used as beasts of burden, etc., but were not to be eaten or used as sacrifices. This pictured God’s desire to have a people set apart for Himself with clean hearts—a holy people.
Gnats were the smallest of the unclean animals and camels were the largest. Some of the Pharisees would strain their drinks through cloth to keep from inadvertently swallowing a gnat. They focused on all the religious “minors,” while ignoring the “majors”—the attitudes of the heart.
But God always looks beyond the outward behavior to the inner man:
For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).
Finally, Jesus said to them, “See! Your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23.38). Religion is an empty shell. It’s only by coming into a right relationship with Christ that we can be saved and made whole.
Calling on the Name of the Lord
Romans 10.9-13 says:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Often when the Bible talks about a name it refers to the person’s character as well as what he or she is called. The name of the Lord means who He is: Master, Savior, Judge, and Redeemer, among other things.
To call on His name means we must first recognize He is who He says He is. He alone is God. He alone is worthy to be called Lord and Master (v. 9a). It means we believe Jesus lived and died and that God raised Him from the dead (v. 9b). It, also, means we recognize our sinful condition and see our need for a Savior.
In their pride and self-righteousness, the religious leaders refused to see their need. They refused to acknowledge Him for who He is, the Son of God. What about you?
Could You Be a Religious Pretender & Not Know It?
Have you ever come to that place in your life where you saw your desperate condition, saw your need for a Savior, repented of (turned away from) your sin, and cried out to Him (v. 13)? If not, you could be a religious pretender instead of a genuine believer?
Jesus said there will be many on the day of judgment who will be shocked to find out that’s what they are (Matt. 7.21-23).
The Religious Pretender Inside of Us
Even when we do have a genuine relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we can be straining out gnats and swallowing camels in some areas of our lives? Let’s look closer at verses 23-24:
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
As believers, we may do a lot of good things: attend church regularly, give of our time and resources, take meals to the sick, attend a small group … and yet neglect the weightier things. We can be holding on to some offense, justifying anger and bitterness, speaking harshly to those around us, trying to manipulate and control others, or having a host of unloving attitudes while telling ourselves we’re good with God. In short, we can be acting like religious pretenders.
The Joy of Your Salvation
Unless we keep growing spiritually with a Matthew 7.5 mindset, we run the risk of having the same attitudes as the Pharisees, demanding perfection from others without love, mercy, justice, and faith, and thinking we can hang on to our sins of the heart. If we are genuinely His children, we don’t lose our salvation, but we do lose its joy and vibrancy.
King David, when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, must have thought that since he was “the king,” God’s anointed, he could live his life any way he pleased without consequence. At that moment he was acting like a religious pretender, but his unconfessed sin only brought him misery (Ps. 38).
After he confessed his sin he prayed:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation … (Ps. 51.10-12).
Do you have any Pharisaical attitudes of which you need to repent? Any secret sin that is keeping you from a joyful, vibrant relationship with God? Bring them into the light, confess them, repent, and ask God to restore the joy of His salvation to you.
Today’s Other Readings:
Exodus 23 & 24
Seeing God
Chapter 24.9-11 contains some incredible statements:
9 Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. 11 But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
All of them saw God in some form. So incredible was what they saw that even the pavement beneath His feet appeared to be like heaven itself! Though we may never see God in the same way these Israelites did (at least in this life), we can behold Him in the person of Jesus Christ! The more we come to know Him through His Word, the more we see Him!
Psalm 19.1-6
His Handiwork
And if that isn’t enough, we can look around at all of creation and see His handiwork, “The heavens declare the glory of God … (v. 1).
Proverbs 6.30-31
Justifying Sin
30 People do not despise a thief
If he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.
31 Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold;
He may have to give up all the substance of his house.
As sinful human beings, we can easily justify sin like the hungry thief in these two verses. But God has promised that if we are believers He will never allow anything in our lives that will force us to sin (1 Cor. 10.13). Instead, we’re to rely on God and respond in ways that glorify Him.
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll move from our discussion about religious pretenders and talk about how to shine the light of Christ. We’ll also look at sheep and goats in the church, how some of us might be trying to make minimum payments on sin when the debt has been paid, and what it really means to be a friend of God.
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss them.
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
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