Today’s Devotion
Topic: Whitewashed Tombs
Text: Mat 23: 27 & 28
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 dead men’s bones 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.” Amen
Growth is an essential part of the Christian life. Each believer, with time, is required of God to “graduate” from being fed to feeding others; from being taught to teaching others; from being led to leading others. There are, however, peculiar challenges associated with every level of growth in the Christendom.
There is a dangerous phenomenon where believers grow to a point where they assume that they have arrived and have seen it all. In Jesus’ day, the leaders of the church were the ones who suffered this phenomenon greatly. Jesus termed it as being “whitewashed tombs”. It was so severe that Jesus had to warn the crowds and His disciples saying; “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” (Mat 23: 2 & 3)
Today, many lay Christians (not only pastors and leaders) also suffer from this phenomenon. There are a lot of whitewashed tombs warming the pews in church each Sunday and at evening services.
A whitewashed-tomb believer is one who professes one thing and does the opposite; one whose actions are very different from his words; one who looks very righteous and faultless on the outside but has a secret life which is contrary to what God desires.
In 1Timothy 4:12 & 16, Paul admonishes Timothy by saying; “…set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
You may be a whitewashed tomb, or you may know someone who is. Beloved, rise up and pray for the grace and strength to live as a true ambassador of Christ; for it is God who works in us, both to will and to do according to His good purpose.
(www.yonghana.org; Like Our Facebook page : Y OUTREACH NETWORK )
