“Outward Display Of Your Righteousness Is Hypocrisy!”

“Outward Display Of Your Righteousness Is Hypocrisy!”
A lady was observing a fast. When she broke the fast she asked the house girl to bring her food. The girl brought the food. The lady opened the dish and didn’t see meat in the sauce. When she asked the house girl, the girl said she had eaten the meat. The lady tied the girl’s wrists and put her hands in glowing embers.
This is the kind of hypocrisy practiced in fasting which prophet Isaiah decried. Fasting is a time of self-denial, self-humbling and repentance for sin. But when it is done to impress it becomes a charade; a facade! It becomes a barrier rather than a channel to the Lord. Religious duties and activities done to be seen by men is already rewarded. It should be done to be seen by God not men (Mtt.6:16-18).
Engaging in religious duties and activities as a sign of righteousness is vain if at the same time we do as we please, exploit our workers and end in “quarelling and strife and striking each other with wicked fists.”
Rather a mark of righteousness should be “to loose the chains of injustice…to set the oppressed free…to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter…” Only then can your righteousness go before you “and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard…”(Is.58:1-9a).
When we fail in these things we remain slaves to sin and are free from the control of righteousness. That is why we are where we are as Church people, as a nation and as a continent – with exceptions though.
It is time for us to search deeply inward, then outwardly act favourably towards others as outcomes of having offered ourselves in slavery to righteousness. We have been set free from sin and are now slaves to God. By this we are sure to reap the benefit of holiness whose result is eternal life.
Let us turn our backs on sin, “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:19-23).
Prayer: Holy Spirit guide me to pursue a righteousness that is the fruit of justice, truth, kindness, and loving attention towards others. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!