All men, at some point in their lives, are confronted with the truth. At such time, men must choose to accept or reject that truth.
The world is full of religion, but this religion bears little to no resemblance to the truth of the scriptures. Why? Because man-made religion is vain.
Many people have the appearance of being religious, but few seem to truly love God and follow His word. As a rule, men want to feel and look religious.
Far too many people have forsaken the simplicity which is in Christ and have instead pursued the complexity and labour of religion (2 Corinthians 11:3).
One must choose his reward for actions taken. Would he rather receive eternal reward from God the Father, or temporary praise and recognition from his peers?
John wondered at the thought that there would be a time in the future when a group identifying as Christian would put others to death for having faith in Christ.
The Lord Jesus is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Creator of the universe. Yet, during His earthly ministry, the Lord made it known that He cared for the “little ones” (Matthew 18:6, 10, 14). Perhaps the disciples thought the Master would be too busy or have more important things to do than to take time for the children. The Lord rebuked His disciples for such erroneous thinking. After all, the Lord loved children and wanted them to come to Him. It grieved Him to think that His disciples would forbid any child from coming to Him. Even now, the Lord wants little children to come to Him. No disciple should ever forbid children to come to the Lord. Even with all of life’s distractions, the Bible admonishes young people to remember their Creator in the days of their youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Hypocrites often reveal themselves as detail oriented people. However, though they might notice something small and insignificant, they often fail to recognize the extremely obvious necessities of faithful service. When dealing with the hypocrites of His day, the Lord Jesus declared this very truth. The hypocrites paid tithes of mint, anise, and cummin but omitted judgment, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). They would “strain at a gnat,” but “swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). They were obedient in the strictest sense of their religion in certain aspects, but oblivious to their disobedience in the more obvious areas of life. Even today, a hypocrite often becomes overzealous in his obedience in one area of life while failing to recognize his rebellion in other important areas.
The Bible depicts the hypocrite as someone who may work hard. Yet, their efforts are directed toward the wrong things. The Lord Jesus pointed out that the hypocrites would “compass sea and land to make one proselyte.” This conveys hard work. Think about the difference that Christians could make by labouring that hard to win “one” soul to the Lord! The hypocrite promotes unholy things contrary to the will of God. Believers need to take the right lesson away from studying the hypocrite. Each of us should be working hard to lead others to Christ and then to teach sound Bible doctrine. Yet, we should spend a lot less time finding fault in others. If we did, churches would be full of converts growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
The Bible-believing student rejects any notion of coincidences within scripture. He chooses rather to believe that every word of God was specifically chosen by the Lord to convey His intended message. In today’s passage, the Lord revealed the root of the hypocrite’s problems—he is likened to “all that forget God.” The hypocrite is a person who presents himself one way, when in reality, he is altogether something far different than the perception he imitates. For instance, he may fast to convey the message that he loves the Lord, but his spirituality is only a façade for men to see. He may pray, but does so to be heard by men. In the end, his greatest problem is that he has forgotten that the all-seeing, all-knowing God knows the difference between heartfelt actions and hypocrisy.
