No woes

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

NO WOES

Luke 11:42-44

42 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. 43 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it." 

NIV

Three woes to these Pharisees which translates into three woes we should watch out for in our lives. The first is about how we make sure we tithe at church, making that a ritual, or rule we can check off that we do, but do we omit the weightier matters of the God? Do we neglect the soul, spirit and practice of godliness? This is what Jesus was telling the Pharisees they were doing and we need to see if that is exactly what we are doing. Do we act according to justice and equity toward all mankind? Do we show mercy to the distressed and miserable? Do we see our faith in God as the fountain of all righteousness, mercy and truth? Jesus was telling them they began nor ended their works in God nor did they give God any respect for doing what they did. They did what they did to be seen by men and they had their reward in human applause. Jesus certainly did not object to their paying tithes, but they did not live according to the way God desired. Surely we can continue to tithe, but we should be living out our faith in our relationships with others, and not to get the praise of men, but the praise of God. Why we applaud singers can never be understood. Why they accept it is even worse. Why don’t we applaud the preacher when he is done? If we are all living in the truth of God, all praise, all applause should be to God and him alone. Once again with the second woe, Jesus was telling them they look for high titles and a show of how great their religion is by seeking the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplace. All their actions, their, what appears to be, acts of righteousness is all a show to get thought highly of by men, rather than by God. This again translates to the same for us. For what reason do we preform acts of righteousness? What is our motivation for doing any acts of service at church or for that matter in public? Is it so others will think we are “Good Christians” or think highly of us because we do this or that? The only reason we do anything should be so we can give God the glory. We have absolutely no talent, no abilities other than what God has given to us, for he knit us together in our mother’s womb and designed our being with all the talent, all the ability we have and then gifted us with his Spirit to be able to use all that we are for his glory, and not for our own. No applause please. The third woe is once again the same. Jesus was telling them they were like unmarked graves, which is people could walk right over or past them, and not see the corruption that is beneath their feet. The same sense of the white washed tombs. This again speaks to our lives. Do people see us as nice and pleasant on the outside but cannot see the corruption that exists on the inside. The lesson here is that we should not have that corruption on the inside while presenting a holier than thou attitude on the outside. People need to be able to see who we really are, and the fact is we should be the people God desires us to be, so people see God in us. We need to live in such a manner we never hear that word, woe.