[Vision2020] A scriptual moment

[DonaldH675 at aol.com]

This text has a certain instructive resonance, while serving as  a useful 
reminder of Jesus' appraisal of hypocrites.
Rose Huskey
Matthew, chapter 23   11: 33 
11: He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; 
12:  whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will 
be  exalted. 
13: But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  because you shut the 
kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter  yourselves, nor allow 
those who would enter to go in. 
15: Woe to you,  scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and 
land to make a  single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make 
him twice as much a  child of hell as yourselves. 
16: "Woe to you, blind guides, who say,  `If any one swears by the temple, it 
is nothing; but if any one swears by the  gold of the temple, he is bound by 
his oath.' 
17: You blind fools!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has 
made the gold sacred?  
18: And you say, `If any one swears by the altar, it is nothing; but  if any 
one swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.'  
19: You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that  makes 
the gift sacred? 
20: So he who swears by the altar, swears by  it and by everything on it; 
21: and he who swears by the temple,  swears by it and by him who dwells in 
it; 
22: and he who swears by  heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who 
sits upon it. 
23:  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and 
dill and  cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice 
and mercy  and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the 
others.  
24: You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!  
25: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse  the 
outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion  and 
rapacity. 
26: You blind Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of the  cup and of the 
plate, that the outside also may be clean. 
27: "Woe to  you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like 
whitewashed tombs,  which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of 
dead men's bones  and all uncleanness. 
28: So you also outwardly appear righteous to  men, but within you are full 
of hypocrisy and iniquity. 
29: "Woe to  you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs 
of the prophets  and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 
30: saying, `If we had  lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have 
taken part with them in  shedding the blood of the prophets.' 
31: Thus you witness against  yourselves, that you are sons of those who 
murdered the prophets. 
32:  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 
33: You serpents, you  brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced 
to hell? 

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