IT'S AN INSIDE THING

LUKE 11:37-40 NKJ 
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? 

 OBSERVATION:

Jesus did not hate the Pharisees. He never hated anyone. But He was not a fan of how they lived.   

Jesus would accept invitations to go and eat with Pharisees. So, He did not shy away from their company.   

In our passage for today, Jesus went to eat with a certain Pharisee and sat down to eat without washing His hands. The Pharisee was dumbfounded by Jesus' disregard for cleanliness. In the mind of this Pharisee, not washing before sitting down to eat was not a matter of being rude or an exhibition of poor upbringing. This was a major sin. 

And Jesus weighed in on this man's thoughts. Or maybe the Pharisee said something out loud. In either case, Jesus addressed the real issue.   

The Pharisees were all about washing. The Jewish people as a whole were very clean. God's laws on washing things had been laid out in the first five books of the Old Testament. But the washings served two purposes. One, they kept germs and dirt at a minimum. The Jews had much less disease as a result of all the washings.   

They also painted a picture of a clean vessel. And this is what Jesus spoke to. Not only was the outside to be clean, but so was the inside.   

Jesus told this man that Pharisees were clean on the outside. But on the inside, they were full of greed and wickedness. Ouch! My guess is that Jesus did not get invited back for lunch.   

APPLICATION: 

So often, Christians have been preoccupied with the outward sins. Being drunk, sexual sins, and hurting or stealing from others were their focal points.   

But we don't need to stop there. Unforgiveness, greed, evil thoughts, and inside things that are harder to spot but still need to be addressed. And we have to remember that walking in love is still the key commandment of the New Testament.   

Christianity is an inside-out way of living. Work on the inside first, and the outside will come into line much easier.