Getting to Know Him
Eighth in the Series
Inside Out, Not Outside In
In the conclusion of His Sermon on The Mount, Jesus mentions three matters Christians should practice privately---pray, give, and fast. (1) When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father unseen. (2) When you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. (3) When you fast, do it privately---not to be seen of men.
Those instructions are essentials of the Christian faith. Ideally, one should get himself right with God before acting in God’s behalf. God works from the inside out---not the outside in. The religious people to whom Jesus ministered had for centuries sought God backward. They insisted the way to God was to keep the law. The beginning of the law consisted of the ten commandments.
In their zeal to keep the commandments, the religious leaders spelled them out meticulously. The Jews had a passion for definition. When the commandments instructed no work on the Sabbath, they felt compelled to define work and Sabbath. Consequently, there were multiple rules regarding labor and Sabbath. Over the years, definitions were developed for all the commandments. Later, definitions of the definitions were added. There was so much law one could not know or keep it all. To complicate the matter even more, religious leaders taught the way to God is by keeping the law.
Jesus insisted that was backward, i.e., the cart is before the horse. One should first get to know God, develop a relationship with Him, and then you and He can work together to know and do what is right. This misunderstanding continues. When asked if they are a Christian, people often answer, “I try to be a good person.” Amazingly, many think God has a divine scale on which He balances an individual’s good and bad deeds. In that system, one’s entry into God’s Kingdom would be determined by the good outweighing the bad. That is not God’s way.
A hitman ratted on the Mafia. Numerous gangsters
were arrested and imprisoned, himself included. In prison he told the chaplain he hoped by this one “super good deed,” God would forgive all his many bad deeds.
The chaplain told him, “God is not a bookkeeper.”
“No,” the hitman answered, “but I figure God can add.”
