Luke 11:40, 45-46 (ESV)
[40] You fools! Did not he who
made the outside make the inside also?
[45] One of the lawyers answered
him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” [46] And he said,
“Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and
you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
Some would conclude from this
passage that it is a model for how we need to evangelize. Call people out on
their sin. Call them fools, proclaim woe, expose their sin, be frank and harsh
if need be. That’s what love does. But we need to remember who Jesus was
talking to. This passage closes with these words in verses 53-54.
[53] As he went away from there,
the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to
speak about many things, [54] lying in wait for him, to catch him in something
he might say.
Jesus did not speak like this to the
general population. He spoke this way to those who thought of themselves as
righteous in the sight of God and were seeking to catch him in something so
they could get rid of him. Do not use this as a model for evangelism. This is
the model for confronting legalism in the church. This is the model for
exposing hypocrisy in the church. Jesus words in verse 41 strike to the heart
of the matter, “But give as alms those things that are within, and
behold, everything is clean for you.” (The bold print is my emphasis)
The real issue is the heart. It’s
not about all the external stuff that we get hung up on. We can be religious,
faithful in church attendance, disciplined in our Bible reading, and committed
to our small group Bible studies, and still miss the point. Holiness is about
the heart.
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