Being Better

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

BEING BETTER

Mark 12:38-40

38 As he taught, Jesus said, "Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely." 

NIV

These men were certainly impressed with who they thought they were. They looked spiritual in all the robes and the way they prayed, but we know exactly what Jesus thought about them. They looked good on the outside but were rotten to the core on the inside, and we have heard Jesus teach that precise truth about them. What we have to consider is how we live our lives. Do we put on a front of spirituality for all the others to see, while we live another way? Certainly it is possible that some of the television evangelists might fall into this same trap that the teachers of the law did, being all puffed up thinking themselves as so important, with their flashy clothes, instead of robes, and their fleecing the poor widows of money, and their smooth tongued prayers. Sometimes there is a leeriness of preachers who pray another sermon after they have preached one. Who are they prayer too? What is the matter with “Thank you Lord” or “Help us Lord”? It is amazing how a name on the door, or a name plate on the desk, a title displaced on the big screen in church whenever they step up on the stage can add to their importance.  Although this does seem to apply to leaders, we should also be aware of how we live. We can fall into this trap very easy, by simply thinking more of ourselves then we ought to. We can think more of our “ministry” in church then we should. We can think of ourselves as better because we know more chapter and verses then others. We can quote the text and expound with fine sounding words, appearing to be intellectual spiritual giants, at least in our own minds. One a more material note, we might even think more highly of ourselves because we drive into the parking lot with the most expensive car, or have the best clothes. We might consider our worldly profession as greater than some others. Whatever we do or think that would place us in a comparison with those teachers of the law; we have to rid ourselves of. We cannot afford to think of ourselves as any better at all than any other, not matter what. If we can rid ourselves of thinking we are better than we will be better.