Faith Capsule: Be a living one to God alone, answering as cleansed from inside.

Matthew 23

Understanding is living for God.
One of the main areas is that without understanding, one cannot live for God.
Understand that God sees from the inside more than the outside.
When it was time for Jesus to clean the temple from inside, the Bible records, “Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, ‘It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Luke 19:45-46)
To clean the temple was, and is, from the inside.
God does not look from outside, but looks from inside.
As a temple of God, how clean is your inside?
All should know that what is present on the outside is not as important to God as what is inside.
Pharisees, meaning separated ones, believed that religious rituals and separation from sinners were the way to please God.
Matters such as the laws of tithing and ritual purity were important to the Pharisees, but not what is carried inside.
Jesus referred to them as hypocrites. He said in Matthew 23:25, “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.”
As a temple of God, there is a need to take a close look from the inside to know if you are a Pharisee of the modern day.
Is it your desire to shine on the outside while the inside is dull and not the Lord?
Are you a modern-day Pharisee?
Pharisees offer more for the outside, more than is requested in ways of living life.
Jesus went into the temple to clean; nothing on the outside could impress Him enough to start cleaning from the inside.
God cleaned the inside.
Today, no title carried from inside to outside shall be enough to impress Jesus.
As a believer, do not be deceived by your title.
God is only interested in how one is living life for His glory.
One who lives to the glory of God from the inside is bound to live right on the outside.
A clean temple from inside to outside answers to the expectation of God.
God is a God of knowledge.
God pays attention to the character of all.
1 Samuel states, “For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed.”
God sees all.
He is not a pretender who acts, sees, and identifies ways of life that count before Him.
Are you a pretender or a modern Pharisee?
God is not deceived, but be a vessel that is cleansed from the inside.
Jesus cleaned the temple and was able to teach and get the attention of the people in the temple.
Make yourself available for Jesus to clean you.

Prayer for today: Ask God to cleanse you to live for Him.