Matthew 23:27

Matthew 23:15: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

One of the big problems that Jesus had with the Pharisees is that they were hypocrites. They looked good from the outside, but they were actually full of corruption and evil. They talked a lot about God, but they had no interest in God, and they stood in other people’s way. They actually tried to prevent people from going to God. Jesus had a lot of very harsh things to say about the religious leaders of His day – and I suspect He would have similar harsh things to say about the leaders in our day as well.

There are so many people who sing hymns and honor God with their lips, but who hate God and who would never dream of repenting of their sins or obeying God’s commands. They may sing His praises, but their hearts are very, very far from God.

Matthew 23:27: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”

Keep in mind that Jesus is saying all of these things to people who already want to kill Him. Notice that Jesus is not “playing nice”. He is not trying to find common ground. He is not avoiding the tough subjects to find areas of common agreement. He is not trying to get them onto His side, or smooth over their differences, or use language that is easy to hear.

Jesus is blunt, direct, and harsh, and He says things that almost no one would dare to say today. Today we believe in being nice; we’re not going to be “judgmental” no matter what people do. But Jesus was not like that. He said exactly what needed to be said, because souls depended upon it. Many people believed the Pharisees and followed them down to Hell – and Jesus was warning them that the Pharisees were liars, monsters, and could not be trusted. This was not the time for playing nice; people had to know the truth, because their eternal destiny depended upon it.

I think that if we were this blunt about warning others against the false teachers in our midst, the Church would be vastly better off.