Luke 11:37-44

Love will always trump legalism.

Obedience, wrote C.S. Lewis, is the key to all doors.

Do the right thing for the right reason, out of love for God, not to please others. What does the Father asks of us? He wants us to be fair, forgive easily and remain humble knowing all good comes from Him alone!

Jesus pointed out that the Pharisees concerned themselves with outward appearances and ritual cleanness, while what was inside, what really counts, was full of selfishness and evil. They neglected two basic things that the prophets also had warned about: love and justice. The Pharisees, the paragons of purity, were in fact the height of uncleanness.

Luke 11:37-44

³⁷ And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. ³⁸ When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.

³⁹ Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 

Matthew 23:25

³⁸ Then He said to them in His teaching,  “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, 

Mark 12:38

⁸ He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? 

Micah 6:8