DRESSED UP AND MESSED UP!!

“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.” Matthew 23:25 NKJV

Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that they were like whitewashed tombs; they looked beautiful on the outside but on the inside they were full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. He told them that they appeared righteous on the outside, but on the inside they were full of hypocrisy (insincerity, double standards, two-facedness) and wickedness.

Jesus was telling them that they were dressed up, but they were messed up!  They looked good on the outside, but they were evil on the inside. They were clean on the outside, but they were dirty on the inside!! 

Jesus made it clear to the scribes and the Pharisees that they needed to clean the inside first, so the outside would be clean. How we look on the inside is more important than how we look on the outside.  If the heart is clean; if our motives are right; if our thinking is righteous and our love is genuine, then on the outside we will walk right; we will talk right; the light from the inside will shine through to the outside. God says that man looks at the outward appearance, but He looks at the heart. God isn’t interested in us being dressed up and messed up!

Sure you look holy; sure you may dress the part; you may look like you’re a believer; you put on a mask; hide beneath your nice outfit or the fact that you belong to a church…maybe it’s the fact that you serve in the church; you head up some ministries; you sing in the choir or usher at the door…maybe you’re a deacon, minister or intercessor…but on the inside you’re unforgiving; unthankful, ungrateful, and unloving. On the outside you’re dressed up, but on the inside you’re messed up!  People think you’re holy and great, but the Lord is looking on the inside and He says, ‘clean up, because you’re messed up!!’

If you want to look holy today, forgive someone. If you want to feel holy today, love someone. If you want to act holy today, help someone. If you want God to see you holy today, tell someone about Christ; pray for the unsaved, surrender to His Word and do something for someone, without them knowing you did it!!!!

Clean up! If the inside is dirty, the outside doesn’t matter.

“There is a class of people who are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their own filth.” Proverbs 30:12 AMPL.