October 14
October 14
What do you live for? What seems best right now? What does God say will be best in the end?
We all need to read the Bible with inquisitive minds, asking questions of what we’re reading. It is possible to read a passage and technically understand the words, but move on without understanding why God thought it best to record and preserve that passage for us. Because all Scripture is profitable, there is a divine intention behind every passage we read. There is no superfluous material anywhere in the Bible, not even the following:
In [Jesus’s] teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Mark 12:38–40)
You might not think this indictment of the scribes has anything whatsoever to do with you, but it does.
When Jesus says, “Beware of the scribes,” he is not just warning his listeners to be careful because the scribes are up to no good. He is also warning his followers (and us) not to act like the scribes. Jesus finds the religiosity of the scribes deeply offensive, and we should too. In his condemnation of them, Jesus combines three things that should get our attention and cause us to do some self-examination: religious externalism, pride, and injustice. These things often go together. Religious externalism concerns public displays of spirituality that do not come from the heart. True biblical religion is always about the capture and transformation of the heart. Pride concerns drawing attention to yourself. Prideful actions are those that are motivated by the worship of self and seek the worship of others. Pride is the enemy of the work of God in the heart. Injustice is a lack of compassion for or activity on behalf of those who are suffering or disadvantaged.
Here’s how these things work together. An externally religious person is proud because his religion is about personal accomplishment and not grace. And, because he thinks he has earned his success, he looks down on people who have less than he has, rather than showing them compassion. Externalism produces pride, and pride is the soil in which injustice grows.
Yes, we should be aware of the lifestyle of the scribes. Their public displays are an attractive form of false godliness. They lack a brokenhearted knowledge of sin, fail to celebrate God’s grace, and never give grace where grace is needed.
God will not be satisfied with our daily Bible reading, regular church attendance, or episodic moments of ministry if underneath these things are pride of accomplishment and a cold heart toward those in need. God will not be satisfied with external Christianity if he does not own and rule our hearts. May grace cause us to give ourselves to nothing less than a true Christianity of the heart.