A CONGRUENT LIFE
Opening Prayer
Give yourself anew to God today.
Read Matthew 23:25–36
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How well does your inner life match your outer life?At the end of one of his books on spiritual formation, Eugene Peterson focused on an individual who lived “a life of congruence”: someone who “wrote what he lived (and) lived what he wrote” (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology, 333). In a world where we regularly wake up to news of famous individuals whose double lives have just been exposed, there’s something incredibly refreshing about Peterson’s description.
Here Jesus uses shocking language to condemn the Pharisees and scribes for their lack of congruence, their hypocrisy and outer play-acting that hide inner lives of “greed and self-indulgence,” and “wickedness” (25b,28b). Religious hypocrites use religion for their own advantage, and such behavior is condemned in the harshest terms in the Bible (33).
Jesus now moves to another major theme of his final teaching—the coming persecution of his followers (36). Jesus puts the Pharisees and scribes among those who have wantonly turned their backs on God’s true messengers (31), as he faces his own inevitable persecution and death.
Apply
In following Jesus we are offered the chance for genuine inner transformation: “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5b). Have you given Christ full access to your life?
Closing prayer
Transform me, Jesus, and help me to live a life of congruence.
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