© 2012 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

A pot is generally used to hold food. Along with cups, platters, and other utensils, they become filthy. Christ, speaking with the Pharisees, likened them to cups who had washed themselves on the outside while remaining filthy on the inside. His instruction to them was, “Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also (Matthew 23:26).”

How often have you heard someone say, “Appearance is everything?” Such a statement betrays the evil heart of man which places more value on what people think about you, than on the truth of what you really are on the inside. This is the same wickedness Jesus faced when he rebuked the Pharisees for concentrating on appearances rather than dealing with the actual wickedness of their own hearts.

As my wife, Kathy, pondered Jesus’ instruction to the Pharisees, she remarked: “You know, when I clean a pot, I clean the inside first. If I try to clean the outside first, then it simply gets dirty when I start cleaning the inside. What’s on the inside gets on the outside all over again.” As she thought a little longer about it, she added, “Most pots, especially the really dirty ones that have stuff burned onto them, need to be soaked first.”

What a spiritual lesson! We are all filthy sinners. We need to be soaked in the water of God’s Word (Ephesians 5:26). We need Christ’s blood to cleanse us from sin on the inside. Only then will our outside truly reflect a Christ-cleansed inside. To those Pharisees focused only on their public image, Jesus said, “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 (Matthew 23:27).” A “sepulchre” is a tomb or grave.

Dear Reader: Have you cried out to God the Son to cleanse your heart and redeem you from sin by His soul cleansing blood, or are you choosing to remain, forever, “a whited sepulchre … full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness?”

 

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