Tuesday 23rd June - Inside-out Spirituality

DAILY BYTE

In our scripture reading today, Jesus challenges the Pharisees for having an unhealthy focus on the potential dangers of outward things on their souls. For example, they constantly worried about ritual cleanliness; believing that what you ate, drank or touched could make you unclean within. In other words their spirituality was from the outside-in.

In contrast to this, Jesus taught that what goes into us does not make a person unclean, but rather it is what comes from within us – from our hearts and inner worlds – that makes us unclean. Focussing solely on external issues completely misses the point as far as Jesus was concerned. You could say then that Jesus taught an inside-out spirituality!

We shouldn’t be too quick to look down on the Pharisees though, for theirs is a common mistake made by many sincere God-followers. We try to act in a certain way, avoid certain activities and places, listen to certain music, develop the right lingo and voila! - we feel like ‘good’ Christians - but within us we still harbour the same old deceit, envy, prejudices, greed and lusts. Nothing really has changed. We too easily forget that true transformation is being changed from the inside-out!

The Pharisees were offended by Jesus’ message because it contested much of what they had built their whole faith upon. Jesus challenged their belief that one could ‘earn’ their way into God’s presence through good behaviour. Jesus also challenged the way that their faith communities excluded certain people from their midst because they did not, or could not, keep to all their strict regulations and rules.

Similarly, we need to be aware that if we allow our faith to concentrate solely on external issues, such as ‘being good,’ then we too may find ourselves trapped in legalism. We may also find that we tend to exclude certain people from our lives because they do not fit our ideas of what it means to be a Christian.

Jesus made the point pretty strongly that this kind of religion is like a plant that the heavenly father has NOT planted and will be pulled out by the roots. It is not a type of faith that will bring life either to us or those we encounter.

True transformation is being changed from the ‘inside-out’.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Almighty God, we confess to you the ‘unclean’ things that come out from within us. We pray that you would transform us from within, and trust that your Spirit would forgive, heal and change us from the inside out. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Matthew 15:10-14 (NIV)

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "

Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"

He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."