It's What's on the Inside That Counts

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Matthew 23: 25-28

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The bible tells us that even if we sin in our minds, we have broken the law. That has been the hardest part of my life in Christ to deal with. We have all had times in our lives when we have thought un-pure thoughts, times when we say things like 'I wish he where dead' or times when we just didn't care what God thought about us. It's natural to think like this, isn't it? Only in our human nature. But God's plan for our lives begin from inside.

Several years ago, when I started my relationship with Christ, I listened to a song that talked about how people live their Christianity on the outside by acting churchy, wearing the christian t-shirts and displaying the bumper stickers that say things like 'I Love Jesus'. But what God really wants is what's inside. We pray for salvation and we ask God into our hearts, we don't ask God to hangout and clean our exterior. I think one of the biggest faults in the modern church is that we tend to look at what is on the outside and not the heart. Here is the kicker. The outside can easily mask what you are really like inside.

The bottom line is this, we can clean up the outside, but if we don't allow Christ to change the inside, what are we really doing? Are we living a good enough life to get to heaven or are we just trying to fool those around us? Don't get me wrong, living out your faith in front of people is not a bad thing at all, but we must make sure that we are right with Him first. You see when James says "Faith without deeds is dead", he is saying that if we truly have faith in Jesus and we allow him to be Lord over our lives, then the deeds will follow.

Here is the challenge for us straight from the apostle Paul, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test." (2 Corinthians 13:5-6, NIV) Take a good look at your life and ask yourselves, am I putting on an act or am I really living for Christ?