8.27-Swallowing a camel.
8.27-
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one [f]proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of [g]hell as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the [h]temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the [i]temple is obligated.’ 17 You fools and blind men! Which is [j]more important, the gold or the [k]temple that sanctified the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the [l]offering on it, he is obligated.’ 19 You blind men, which is [m]more important, the [n]offering, or the altar that sanctifies the [o]offering? 20 Therefore, [p]whoever swears by the altar, swears both by [q]the altar and by everything on it. 21 And [r]whoever swears by the [s]temple, swears both by [t]the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 And [u]whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and [v]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!
By our attitudes we keep people our
to the kingdom of God. We have sent
different races down the street to a congregation of their kind of people.
We have misappropriated our budgets to
not provide for the widows, the orphans and others in need and at the same time
we have had too much emphasis on having the perfect “worship service” (not too
short and not too long) so that prayers
were the right kind, the right length by
the right people.
We travel on mission trip to convert
other people’s young people while our own homes remain unconverted. Our own kids are not only unconverted, but inoculated
against the right kind of relationship with Jesus of committed discipleship.
We demand certain language. We don’t call our preacher, pastor. We don’t call a revival anything but gospel
meeting. We don’t call the auditorium
the sanctuary. We don’t call the church
house the church. We call Bible things
by Bible names.
We tithe carefully, no more or no
less than 10% of everything down to the cumin, but do not teach and preach
about weighter matters of God’s commands, justice, righteousness, mercy and
faithfulness.
We have strained out the
theological gnats and swallowed the false religion camel.
Matthew
23.
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven [c]from [d]people; for you do not enter in yourselves,
nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 14 [[e]Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long
prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.]15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one [f]proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of [g]hell as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the [h]temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the [i]temple is obligated.’ 17 You fools and blind men! Which is [j]more important, the gold or the [k]temple that sanctified the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the [l]offering on it, he is obligated.’ 19 You blind men, which is [m]more important, the [n]offering, or the altar that sanctifies the [o]offering? 20 Therefore, [p]whoever swears by the altar, swears both by [q]the altar and by everything on it. 21 And [r]whoever swears by the [s]temple, swears both by [t]the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 And [u]whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and [v]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!
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