Happy Friday! It is December 23, 2022. I’m so looking forward to our Christmas Eve services at New Hope West at 5 and 7 tonight and 2, 4, & 6 pm Pacific Time tomorrow! I invite you to join us in person or live online! Today Jesus reveals an incongruency that can afflict each of us as Christians. He described those who would strain at a gnat but swallow a camel! That’s not as difficult as it seems. We do it all the time. Read on …
Today's Reading:
John 15,16,17,18
Scripture
“They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium in order that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.” (John 18:28)
Observation
Jesus called it like it is! In Matthew 23:24, He said, “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” And in John 18, we see that definition played out in real-time.
The religious leaders, bound and determined to frame Jesus to have Him crucified, took Him to the Praetorium. However, since it was a “Roman” structure, they, being Jews, could not enter. To do so would defile and disqualify them from eating the Passover meal shortly to come. Therefore, they stood outside in order to be religiously correct, yet made sure that Jesus would be killed. Pilate actually had to go outside so they could accuse Jesus without defiling themselves (v. 29). Like contract thugs hiring a hitman, they subtly rope Pilate into doing the dirty work for them. They were religiously correct yet eternally wrong!
Application
Can this happen to us? Absolutely—we can go to church, give our offerings, even serve on a committee—yet, criticize and defame others. And when it comes to current events, we have become pros at being politically correct, yet relationally, we’re out-to-lunch … busy swallowing camels.
- We allow a government candidate to be the reason we don’t speak to our parents.
- We let our view of right and wrong about sexual immorality determine our theology and relationship with others.
- We judge those who didn’t wear COVID masks as “uncaring and cruel” while we dismiss our own judgmental attitudes and practice of snubbing those we disagree with.
- We strain out gnats but swallow camels.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, please help me NOT do the same as the religious leaders. Help me to be eternally correct even if I might be deemed religiously and politically wrong. In the end, the eternal will trump the temporal, and Your Word will remain the highest law in the land!
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