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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Matthew 23:1-4
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ²"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. ³ So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. ⁴They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

A false form of righteousness results in what Jesus described in verse 4; externalism.
Much of their righteousness depended on their control over externals, often including the manipulation of others.

As Richard J. Foster puts is aptly, "When the disciplines degenerate to law, they are used to manipulate and control people. We take explicit commands and use them to imprison others. Such a deterioration of the Spiritual Disciplines results in pride and fear. Pride takes over because we come to believe that we are the right kind of people. Fear takes over because we dread losing control."

We are called to walk in love.

Do not let your position in Christ and your knowledge of the Word of God ever cause your religion and your walk with God to become a performance. It should also not be a license for you to go around ordering people or thinking better of yourself.

Let the transforming work of God begin in you, from there you lead people into the same place in love. Most of the time, half the battle would have been won, because people would have witnessed the transforming work in you, which entitles you the credibility to lead them there.