Year 6, Day 197: Matthew 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

Matthew 23 is a very interesting chapter.  Jesus gives us seven woes.  However, notice to whom each of these woes is directed.  Jesus is taking it to the religious elite.  He is taking it to the people who think they know.  He is taking it to the people who have been unwilling to listen all along.  As Jesus’ ministry ends, He ushers forth one more great big challenge, and these challenges are to the people who have opposed Him all along.

That doesn’t mean that we who are His disciples cannot learn from this challenge.  Look at the main points that Jesus brings out:

• We should practice what we preach rather than lay heavy burdens upon people while living differently than we tell others to live.
• We should be people who are opening up relationship to God rather than driving people away by our actions and words.
• We need to make sure that we understand priorities when it comes to worship and that God is more important than the trappings within His house.
• We need to make sure that we are more about God’s grace love and mercy than we are worried about all of the legal minutia.  Of course we should try to keep God’s Law, but grace and forgiveness should be extended to the repentant always.
• We need to make sure that we are always looking within ourselves to look for areas to improve and bring into alignment with God; we should be more critical of our own shortcomings than the shortcomings of the people around us.
• We need to be careful that we present our true selves and not present grand and perfect facades that aren’t real.
• We need to be humble about our faults and not think that we are better than others, especially other people who are recorded in God’s Word.  It is easy to think that we wouldn’t have made the same mistakes they made, but we need to be honest and admit that hindsight is always 20/20.

This is a very big list of challenge for any of us.  Each of these points work against our human nature.  Yes, these woes were originally directed against Jesus’ foes.  But if we are honest, we can all learn from these words.

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