Bible Reading: Matthew 15:8-9
Do you think that if you try really hard to figure out what God’s rules are you’ll be able to obey them and that if you obey them well enough God will surely let you into heaven? If so, you are like the
Pharisees.
The Pharisees were so into studying God’s laws and trying to figure out how to obey God’s laws to the tiniest detail that they forgot that what God really wanted. In Matthew 15:8 & 9 Jesus said, “These people [the Pharisees] honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” The Pharisees were so worried about obeying every detail perfectly that they even debated and argued about things like whether or not it was okay to eat an egg which was laid by a chicken on the Sabbath! (Many of the Pharisees believed that laying an egg was “work” and no work was to be done on the Sabbath.)
What God really wanted was for each of them to become a new person on the inside, not just have a new look on the outside.
I hope you aren’t worrying so much about “eggs” that you have forgotten that God wants to change you and make you into a new person on the inside not just see you looking like a new person on the outside.
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 2:22-24
Prayer: God, I want to genuinely serve you. Change me on the inside. I Jesus’ name. Amen.