Verse of the day: Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you
make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
The
indictment against the scribes and Pharisees in this verse is that they would
do whatever was necessary for them to add to their own numbers. They were not
bringing others in for the sake of bringing them to the Messiah, but were only
interested in adding to their own circle, and taking from them whatever gain they
could while corrupting those proselytes further than they already were. The men
they drew into their “religious club” were pagans who would put aside some of
their practices for the sake of joining the “club”, and once they had nothing
else to offer they were cast aside and left to their own devices. They become
worse than the ones who brought them in and indoctrinated them. They were the
Pharisees who would later be the most vicious against Christians and
Christianity, and opposed anything that had to do with Jesus. In the end, once
left to their own devices, they not only practiced some of their former wicked
rituals and traditions, but to them they added all the hypocritical attitudes
and actions which Jesus was here condemning the scribes and Pharisees for.
There are cults that exist today that resemble this group of religious men.
Sadly, even within “Christian” circles, there are some local churches that
almost resemble this same pattern. I have seen “local churches” that are more
concerned with meeting social needs and taking care of their church building
than they are in winning people to Christ. I have seen these same
establishments run pastors out who came in and preached the Gospel, and began
winning people to Christ. The end result is hostile take overs, and driving
people out who they determined were not fit to be part of the “club”. They did
not meet the social status requirements. I remember one instance in which the
pastor of a church was forced to leave and start another work that did flourish
because he was preaching the Gospel and winning people to Jesus; while those
who were more interested in the church building and wanted nothing to do with
winning others to Christ remained, only wanting to add to their own little
social circle, and ended up having to sell that building to someone who
converted it into a condominium complex. How sad that a town that had a beacon
of light in the center of its town now has nothing to combat the darkness that already
existed in their midst. This is what happens when we are more interested in our
own gain, and use “religion” as a means of gaining more of what is worldly.
Please hear me. There is nothing wrong with Christians or local churches
seeking to meet the needs of those who have needs (the poor, the homeless, the
broken, etc.). However, let us not forget that the greatest thing that man
needs today, and has always needed, is a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. If we as born again believers want to make an impact in this world, we must
first and foremost preach, and live, the Gospel message (Mk 16:15). The scribes
and Pharisees measured the success of their religion by their numbers. The more
men they could bring into their circles, the more they considered themselves to
be successful, feeding their own egos and flaunting their delusional success
before the people in order to feel more important. There are too many local
churches today that are measuring their success by the number of heads they
count in their Sunday morning service. Yet, within those same local assemblies we
have “believers” who do not share Christ with others, do not live changed
lives, are not participating in any form of discipleship, and are intermingling
former belief, and personal traditions with their new found faith, that for all
intents and purposes seems to be okay with letting them continue in certain
sinful behavior without any real consequence as long as they fill the pews and
swell the weekly head-count. Even more damaging is a new believer who observes
that we, who bring them in, preach one thing about what we believe, but live
another. On the contrary, I have had the privilege of sitting in, and
participating in, corporate worship, in small local churches who were small in number
but great in worship, preaching the truth of God’s Word, doing all they could
to win people to Christ, and doing their best to teach, the few who they do win
to Christ, God’s truth. I’ll take that, any day, over some of these
Mega-churches who seem to be alive with excitement, but dead in their
commitment and surrender to Christ. I have known too many Christians who love
to brag about how many people they have won to Christ and brought to a local
church service, but can barely tell us, if at all, how many of them they have
actually spent real time with, teaching them the truths of God’s Word. The end
result is people who make professions of faith, who come to a service or two,
and then disappear because the confession was superficial, or they were left to
their own devises because we did not take the time to follow Jesus command to
not just win them, but make disciples of them (Mt 28:19-20). We are more interested
in showing others what great soul-winners we were, but that is often only for
our own pat on the back. Let us not be like the Pharisees, bringing people into
our circles, but failing to truly point them to Christ, leaving them out there
for Satan to abuse and discourage, ultimately leaving them worse off than they
were before they even heard about Jesus.
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