Spawning children of hell
I wonder how many people's legalistic HR departments won't let them view this week's study because of the word "hell" appearing in it. Somewhere, some henpecked IT administrator is looking at an alert screen because their content filter picked up a potential swear word on one of their employees' screens during their lunch hour browse. But assuming you've made it this far, the reading burden should be pretty light. We'll just be looking at Matthew 23:15 this week:
The H-E-double-hockeysticks in this part of the Holy Bible is referring to the realm of the damned (there I go again) ruled by Satan. In this small area, the devil's values and worldview are on display. When people think of it, they think of the headline acts of evildoers, stuff like sexual immorality, drug addiction, witchcraft, property crimes, lying, etc. What they don't often think of is legalism.
Legalism is the belief that we can earn God's favour through our actions. Sometimes it can seem like just following rules for the rules' sake, but in the heart of a legalist, one follows the rules in order to be a good person, and in being a good person he can then separate himself from the bad people. The law stops being a medicine (do X to stop suffering from Y) and discipline (pick this weight up five times a day and your arms will be stronger) to him and becomes a path to glory, even to a sense of godlikeness.
At the root of it is Satan. Tradition goes that Satan was the most glorious angel God created, but he wanted to be God and so he got cast down. Being an angel, and not a man or a woman, there is no grace for him. Jesus didn't die for the angels. The angels are chattel, like property. They're tools. There is no love for them. Satan failing and being cast out is like me throwing away my computer when it breaks or becomes obsolete. No love lost.
But Satan has an ego, and he feels he's earned godhood through his deeds and talents. And so when he gets close enough to whisper, he fuels that same drive in us. Either he tells us we don't deserve God's grace because we haven't earned it, or he tells us we have earned it but others haven't. We're either working and working to earn something that can never be earned, or we're making everyone else jump through silly hoops in order to keep up with our inflated image of ourselves.
The rules, and our worldview become a means for condemning others. Maybe they haven't attended church regularly enough. Maybe they don't go to the right Bible study. Maybe their clothes aren't sexy enough, or are too sexy. Maybe they go to a different church that you've never been to, but which can't possibly be as cool as the one you are on the board of. And so this spider's web of tangled rules and standards becomes a snare for people trying to grow closer to God, which is perfect for a being whose dying wish is to separate God from as many of the people he loves as he can. A legalist is a son of hell, as he's picked up Satan's values and is working at what you could call the family business of the devil himself: separating people from God.
But Jesus goes a step further in pointing it out. He condemns the Pharisees for travelling over land and sea to win a single convert. How on earth could evangelism be the devil's work? It goes back to legalism again. Legalists, and cults in particular, always seem to be evangelism focused. Some of them even use sex to evangelise. Others go out with book tables and tract packs and ride bicycles all over the countryside trying to win people over. But if the root is legalism, not love, it's a numbers game. How many people you "save" gets added to your mental portfolio of how good a Christian you are. You're a haggard salesman, always trying to close, so you can get that commission for yourself.
Missions are a spin on that. You travel over land and sea to reach people, but what for? If you're a legalist, it's to get that overseas service ribbon to advance your promotion. You can stick it on a wall and use it to distinguish between yourself and others: Here's all the places I've gone, what have you done, chump? Some churches push missions trips, especially to young people, and there's a whole industry that has grown up around it. But if your motive is legalism, and not love for the people you're travelling to reach, you're better off staying home. The last thing desperate people in the far corners of the world need is for their first impression of a Christian to be a self-absorbed hypocrite.
Jesus is condemning the Pharisees' behaviour, because once they convert someone, they turn them into a legalist like them. Except their new converts have the zeal of a new convert. This is how you end up stuff like the religious police going around throwing acid on women whose heads aren't covered in what they see as the required level of piety. It's demonic savagery in the name of God. What better slander job for the worst tool in the history of the universe to pull off as his last act of bitter revenge?
But legalism isn't wrong as a sort of last law to end all laws, because that itself would be legalism. I've seen churches go out of their way to be "culture current" and go on an ISIS-like purge of anything "christianese" in a superstitious attempt to not be legalistic, while ironically being super legalistic about it. "Oh you have a big Bible with an embroidered Bible cover? Pharisee! You're like that christianese dork in a suit and 80s hair over there." Legalism is wrong because it is the devil's work. It slanders the grace of God, and prevents people from experiencing his boundless love. It spills blood and treasure to accomplish nothing good.
And Jesus condemns them by saying "woe to you." He's saying "man, you are going to have some problems!" We've all seen football games where one of the players gets the ball and scores a heroic goal, only to find out that he'd been confused and scored a point for the opposing team instead! The Pharisees and teachers of the law were working heroically to score points for the opposing team, completely unaware. They're looking down at people, but Jesus is telling them that the reason they can do that is that they're actually standing at the gallows and they should get free while they can!
And that's a lesson that applies to us today. What matters is love, and God's grace. Everything builds on that. Jesus didn't do the things he did in order to earn a place in heaven. It was already his. And he's chosen us and extended his offer of salvation to us knowing every wrong thing we would ever do. If we changed nothing from now until the day we died, he would still love us and have a place for us for eternity. The choice is ours whether to accept that, and become sons (and daughters) of heaven, or to reject it, and become sons (and daughters) of hell.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
The H-E-double-hockeysticks in this part of the Holy Bible is referring to the realm of the damned (there I go again) ruled by Satan. In this small area, the devil's values and worldview are on display. When people think of it, they think of the headline acts of evildoers, stuff like sexual immorality, drug addiction, witchcraft, property crimes, lying, etc. What they don't often think of is legalism.
Legalism is the belief that we can earn God's favour through our actions. Sometimes it can seem like just following rules for the rules' sake, but in the heart of a legalist, one follows the rules in order to be a good person, and in being a good person he can then separate himself from the bad people. The law stops being a medicine (do X to stop suffering from Y) and discipline (pick this weight up five times a day and your arms will be stronger) to him and becomes a path to glory, even to a sense of godlikeness.
At the root of it is Satan. Tradition goes that Satan was the most glorious angel God created, but he wanted to be God and so he got cast down. Being an angel, and not a man or a woman, there is no grace for him. Jesus didn't die for the angels. The angels are chattel, like property. They're tools. There is no love for them. Satan failing and being cast out is like me throwing away my computer when it breaks or becomes obsolete. No love lost.
But Satan has an ego, and he feels he's earned godhood through his deeds and talents. And so when he gets close enough to whisper, he fuels that same drive in us. Either he tells us we don't deserve God's grace because we haven't earned it, or he tells us we have earned it but others haven't. We're either working and working to earn something that can never be earned, or we're making everyone else jump through silly hoops in order to keep up with our inflated image of ourselves.
The rules, and our worldview become a means for condemning others. Maybe they haven't attended church regularly enough. Maybe they don't go to the right Bible study. Maybe their clothes aren't sexy enough, or are too sexy. Maybe they go to a different church that you've never been to, but which can't possibly be as cool as the one you are on the board of. And so this spider's web of tangled rules and standards becomes a snare for people trying to grow closer to God, which is perfect for a being whose dying wish is to separate God from as many of the people he loves as he can. A legalist is a son of hell, as he's picked up Satan's values and is working at what you could call the family business of the devil himself: separating people from God.
But Jesus goes a step further in pointing it out. He condemns the Pharisees for travelling over land and sea to win a single convert. How on earth could evangelism be the devil's work? It goes back to legalism again. Legalists, and cults in particular, always seem to be evangelism focused. Some of them even use sex to evangelise. Others go out with book tables and tract packs and ride bicycles all over the countryside trying to win people over. But if the root is legalism, not love, it's a numbers game. How many people you "save" gets added to your mental portfolio of how good a Christian you are. You're a haggard salesman, always trying to close, so you can get that commission for yourself.
Missions are a spin on that. You travel over land and sea to reach people, but what for? If you're a legalist, it's to get that overseas service ribbon to advance your promotion. You can stick it on a wall and use it to distinguish between yourself and others: Here's all the places I've gone, what have you done, chump? Some churches push missions trips, especially to young people, and there's a whole industry that has grown up around it. But if your motive is legalism, and not love for the people you're travelling to reach, you're better off staying home. The last thing desperate people in the far corners of the world need is for their first impression of a Christian to be a self-absorbed hypocrite.
Jesus is condemning the Pharisees' behaviour, because once they convert someone, they turn them into a legalist like them. Except their new converts have the zeal of a new convert. This is how you end up stuff like the religious police going around throwing acid on women whose heads aren't covered in what they see as the required level of piety. It's demonic savagery in the name of God. What better slander job for the worst tool in the history of the universe to pull off as his last act of bitter revenge?
But legalism isn't wrong as a sort of last law to end all laws, because that itself would be legalism. I've seen churches go out of their way to be "culture current" and go on an ISIS-like purge of anything "christianese" in a superstitious attempt to not be legalistic, while ironically being super legalistic about it. "Oh you have a big Bible with an embroidered Bible cover? Pharisee! You're like that christianese dork in a suit and 80s hair over there." Legalism is wrong because it is the devil's work. It slanders the grace of God, and prevents people from experiencing his boundless love. It spills blood and treasure to accomplish nothing good.
And Jesus condemns them by saying "woe to you." He's saying "man, you are going to have some problems!" We've all seen football games where one of the players gets the ball and scores a heroic goal, only to find out that he'd been confused and scored a point for the opposing team instead! The Pharisees and teachers of the law were working heroically to score points for the opposing team, completely unaware. They're looking down at people, but Jesus is telling them that the reason they can do that is that they're actually standing at the gallows and they should get free while they can!
And that's a lesson that applies to us today. What matters is love, and God's grace. Everything builds on that. Jesus didn't do the things he did in order to earn a place in heaven. It was already his. And he's chosen us and extended his offer of salvation to us knowing every wrong thing we would ever do. If we changed nothing from now until the day we died, he would still love us and have a place for us for eternity. The choice is ours whether to accept that, and become sons (and daughters) of heaven, or to reject it, and become sons (and daughters) of hell.
Comments
Post a Comment