Whitewashed

Whitewashed

Matthew 23:27-28 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

When it comes to home maintenance you can cover up a lot of problems with a good coat of paint. A freshly painted house might look good on the outside, but it does nothing to fix the bad plumbing, faulty wiring, or leaking roof. You might drive by a house like that and think it looks beautiful from the outside, but inside it’s a mess.

The same is true of people. They try to fix their life by covering up their faults. They might stop doing some of the bad things they used to do and start doing some good things they should have been doing all along, but all of that is just whitewash. It looks good on the outside, but it doesn’t really fix anything on the inside.

Jesus understood. You can whitewash a tomb and make it look nice, but there’s still only rotting flesh and dead men’s bones inside. That’s how He described the false religious leaders of His days here on earth. They looked good on the outside. They said the right things and did the right things, but inside they were two-faced sinners. They looked righteous, but they were rotten on the inside.

It’s really a matter of the heart. Change must be heart-deep change. Just like fixing up a house requires more than a paint job, fixing up your life is more than external. It all begins with a change of heart. Fixing your life requires a new way of thinking, a new way of processing information. It requires a new heart, a heart that only comes to you by way of faith in Jesus Christ. When you truly believe in Jesus He changes your heart, and that changes your life from the inside out. Rather than a coat of whitewash on the outside, you’ll be changed on the inside.

Have a God Filled Week,
Brother Donnie