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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Pharisee Behavior - Matthew 22:41-23:12

I can remember a time when, as a child, I would question my father's authority. Sunday mornings he would be instructing my sister and I to "eat your breakfast and get dressed or you will be late for church."

I often turned to him and asked, "Why should we? You don't go to church."

His response was always, "Do as I say, not as I do." End of discussion.

Now, granted, it would have been ideal if dad had joined us every Sunday at church, but that doesn't take away from the fact that his instructions to us were sound. We needed to go to church, it was important that we learned to observe Sunday as an important day.

I hear Jesus saying the same thing to the crowds in these two verses. "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach." (Matthew 23:2-3)

Jesus knew the Pharisees understood the scriptures and they knew what was right, they just did not practice what they preached. Have you ever experienced this? Have there been times in your life when you knew better, in fact you even believed otherwise, but your behavior did not reflect your knowledge?

To read all of the text for today go to Biblegateway here.

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