Don’t Become This Guy!
Matthew 23:23,24 It will be bad for you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You give God a tenth of the food you get, even your mint, dill, and cumin. But you don’t obey the really important teachings of the law—being fair, showing mercy, and being faithful. These are the things you should do. And you should also continue to do those other things. You guide the people, but you are blind! Think about a man picking a little fly out of his drink and then swallowing a camel! You are like that.
There are times when we’re absolutely convinced that we’re right. Absolutely! And all those people out there … they’re wrong. And yet, paradoxically … in insisting on being right, we can end up being quite wrong.
I saw a picture recently of a wide set of stairs leading up to the front doors of two separate residences joined together as a duplex. It was obviously winter, and it had been snowing.
The owner on the left had scraped the snow off the stairs on his side, meticulously stopping at an imaginary line that ran down from the boundary between the two homes. And that line, clear on one side, snow on the other, was dead straight.
So let me ask you, was he right in what he did? Or by being right, was he in fact wrong? The caption under the photo said, “Don’t become this guy.” I totally agree.
Matthew 23:23,24 It will be bad for you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You give God a tenth of the food you get, even your mint, dill, and cumin. But you don’t obey the really important teachings of the law—being fair, showing mercy, and being faithful. These are the things you should do. And you should also continue to do those other things. You guide the people, but you are blind! Think about a man picking a little fly out of his drink and then swallowing a camel! You are like that.
Sometimes, in being 100% right, we can end up being 100% wrong. How? By insisting on the rules and forgetting to be fair, forgetting to show mercy, forgetting how to be faithful.
Don’t become that guy!
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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