John
5:41-47 (NIV) "I do not accept praise from men, 42 but I know you. I know
that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my
Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own
name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one
another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?
45
"But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is
Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe
me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how
are you going to believe what I say?"
NOTE: This passage
ought to put a chill in the heart of an outwardly religious person. Jesus'
audience was very religious and, as he says, had set their hopes on Moses. But
Jesus tells them that 1) they do not have the love of God in their hearts; 2)
they readily accept people who believe like them; 3) they long ago lost the
desire to please God; and 4) they have ceased to really dig into the truth that
could save their lives, i.e., the scriptures which foretold about Jesus. How do
we avoid becoming outwardly religious? I think it starts inwardly. It requires
a steady dose of truth, which is the word of God. We need to read his Word
daily and saturate our mind with truth. Secondly, we need to evaluate our
actions in light of truth. We need to ask the hard questions of our motives and
don't let ourselves be fooled by others' praise. We need to learn to repent of
sin immediately, so that nothing can hinder the Lord's work in our lives.
Finally, we must never put our hope in rules or outward expressions of faith,
because God looks at the heart, and works can never save us.
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