Woe to the Hyprocrite

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matthew 23:23

I rushed from a church friend's place to a birthday party for one of my children's classmates. As usual, I stayed and visited with the adults while the children played. One of the mothers noted the way I was dressed and said, "Oh you must go to that church . . . that one that makes the women wear dresses." The woman then went on to tell of all the horrendous things people at that church had done to her.

I blushed in shame, fidgeted and wished like crazy I had changed into a pair of jeans.

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"Oh, you go to that legalistic church, the one that says you have to behave in such and such away to prove that you are a Christian." The man furrowed his brow and shook his head.

I tried to defend my church and replied that no, we believe that by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves . . . but was I living it?

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"The men in that church think women are beneath them . . ." the woman spoke with derision.

I knew her case, what she'd been through, and understood her bitterness, but I couldn't agree. Nonetheless, had we treated her in such a way as to cause her to believe this?

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I believe we must live good lives before all men to honor God and bring Him glory, but I also recognize that when my 'good-living' isn't coupled with judgment, mercy, and faith, it wears the cloak of a hypocrite.

Jesus didn't tell the Pharisees to stop tithing or to not clean the outside of their cups, but He did rebuke them for performing good works so that they would outwardly appear righteous unto men.

I want to live a good life. I want to please my Lord. And I don't want to be a stumbling block, an excuse for an unsaved person to resist the Gospel.

My desire is that when strangers meet me, or people who do not go to my church meet me, that they do not look on the way I dress or how I act and scorn Christ. Rather that upon my countenance they see something for which they long; that through my words and actions they are drawn to the Holy Spirit living within me; that my interaction with them leaves them wanting more of Christ.

It is not what I wear that makes me a Christian. It is not the good-living that brings me salvation. It is not how my husband treats me that makes me better than anyone else (and he treats me like I'm his greatest treasure). All these things are nothing more than cleaning "the outside of the cup and the platter." (Matthew 23:25)

What will make me appear as a Christian to the unsaved is what comes from within me; what proceeds from my mouth; what they see on my face; what spirit they feel in my presence; and whether they experience from me judgment, mercy, and faith.

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: . . . Matthew 15:18-20

Will I lower my standards which I uphold to keep my heart and my mind close to God just to not offend? No. But I hope that what a person remembers of me is not that I don't do certain things, rather that I showed them Christ's love, mercy, justice, and faithfulness, and in addition to that, I live a righteous life.