Blind Guides

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

BLIND GUIDES

Matt 23:16-22

16 "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

NIV

The third woe deals with oaths and that is something that needs to be examined in light of the rest of the scripture regarding oaths. What we specifically what to remember is what Jesus said, as Matthew recorded for us, which is back in the fifth chapter. Jesus explicitly said that we are not to make an oath either by heaven or by the throne of God, or by the earth or its footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. Jesus went on to tell us that we should not even swear or make an oath by our own head, for we cannot make one hair either black or white. He said to let our yes be yes and our no be no, so then this woe was dealing with people who did not pay attention to what Jesus said anyway. That is why he calls them blind guides. Any false teacher or preacher is a blind guide, and we have our fair share of them in the religious world of today. We dare not call it the church of today, for those blind guides, cannot be a true part of the church or the community of faith for they guide others to being blind to the truth, but rather they lead them astray for their own self-aggrandizement, and self-fulfillment. This is what Jesus said about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. We should be careful that we do not teach that someone should swear to God or make an oath or promise God that they would do this or that, or not do this or that. There is no question that we cannot be sure we would ever keep our promise one hundred percent, one hundred percent of the time. We are going to fail at some point and what kind of trouble that could cause us, because we promised and then broke our promise or oath. Anyone who says that we would promise God anything is a blind guide.