Saturday, October 15, 2016

A Clean Cup

“When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.” Luke 11:37-41

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their religious looking “clean” cup. Yes, from the outside all looks pristine and lovely but all the while the inside their hearts were full of filth. The Pharisees were known for having the appearance of perfection in the religious world. They looked like they were doing everything right from the outside, but inwardly they were in complete opposition to the word of God. I think it’s safe to say that in one-way shape or form, we have all walked down this road before. We have all made ourselves appear to others as if everything is peaches and cream, but inside our hearts are not right with the Lord. As far as everyone else knows our world is perfectly fine, but we know that our hearts are not in tune with our Heavenly Father’s. We may even have a feeling of distance between us and the Lord. We continue to go to church week after week, put a smile on our face and wear that “everything is fine” mask. All the while, no one knows that our walk with the Lord is on shaky ground. Please tell me I’m not the only one who is guilty of cleaning up the outside of my cup only to neglect the inside. Yes, I have walked down that road in my past and believe me, if you are not there now, and you never have been there, please do all you can to keep your heart right before the Lord because living like all is well when your walk with the Lord is dying is a horrible place to be. God would rather our hearts be clean, pure and right before Him with our outward appearance looking like it’s in shambles then the other way around. 

“...The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Another side of the “Clean Cup” Mentality
The other aspect of this clean cup mentality that I have been thinking heavily about is this whole disillusioned notion that we have to clean ourselves up before we come to the Lord. Some people will even go the extreme of thinking that before they can ever set foot inside the doors of a church building they need to be perfect. I can not recall one time in scripture where it says to get all your ducks in a row first before Jesus will have anything to do with you. In fact, scripture tells us just the opposite. Christ came to seek out and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). Christ loves us so much that while we were still in the midst of our wrongs, in the depths of our addictions, and in bondage to our sin, in that very moment is when He willingly laid down His life for us (Romans 5:8)! This is the beauty of our Heavenly Father. He loves us right where we are at. Now, please note here that while He laid down His life for us while we were yet in our sin, it is not His desire that we remain there. Christ did not lay down His life to set us free just so we can feel better for a short time only for us to return to the bondages of sin once again. No! Christ came while we were in the depths of our sin to set us free so we can stay free. So we can live a life that is full of love, joy, and peace. He called us to live a life that beckons others to come to the feet of Jesus and find freedom as well.  

Clean Enough
Have you ever gone to the Lord thinking that you have “cleaned yourself up enough” only to have the Lord convict your heart? I have to say, I must raise my hand on this one. I am so guilty of trying to clean up myself and then trying to approach the Lord only to realize that when I put my cleanest, whitest clothing on and then stand beside the King of Kings, I look quite dingy and stain ridden next to the creator of all perfection. It is in these moments that I all I can do is say, “Here I am Lord, dirty, spotted, stained, tattered and torn. And despite my best efforts, this is the best I can do. I place the rest in your hands.” Jesus, with all compassion in his heart, looks back at me and says, “My daughter, I never wanted you to try to clean yourself up. I just wanted you to come as you are. For it is an impossible thing for you to do. This is why I have poured out my blood on the cross for you. It is only by my blood that you can be made clean, unspotted, unstained, whole, complete, and as white as snow. I love you as you are. Let me do the heavy cleaning from now on.” It puts tears in my eyes just thinking about how much the Lord loves us, that He wants us to come as we are so He can do the dirty work of cleaning the sinful mess that we have made of our hearts. He doesn’t want us to try and do His job. Besides even when we try, we will always fall short. We are not capable of cleaning up sin. When we try to clean up the sin in our lives all we end up doing is making a bigger mess by smearing, smudging and possibly even adding to it. I sometimes wonder why we as Christians feel the need to do God’s job. Is it that we don’t trust Him with our heart or is it that we are too ashamed of what we have done and wished it wasn’t so bad? I’m guessing it’s a little of both at times. 

How to keep a clean heart
God is looking at our hearts and not just the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). He is looking at our secret place. He is looking at everything that everyone else cannot see. There is nothing hidden from the Lord (Hebrews 4:13). He desires for our hearts to be a place of righteousness, honor, and truth. He wants our hearts to be pure and upright. But what must we do in order to keep a clean heart?


1. Walk in Forgiveness
“ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Our clean heart starts with walking in forgiveness. We must seek forgiveness from Jesus Christ in order for us to be purified and cleansed from our unrighteousness. Christ cannot and will not cleanse sin from our hearts if we are not willing to seek forgiveness first! A clean heart begins with forgiveness from our Savior! 

2. Walk in Humility
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:10

This was one of the problems that the Pharisees had. They refused to humble themselves. They wanted to be lifted up without walking in a place of humility. Walking in pride got them nothing but one big chastisement after another from Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I have found myself tripping over my pride more times then I care to admit. I thank God for his grace because without it I would find myself so deep in trouble that Solomon in all his wisdom might just be stumped in getting me out of my pit.

3. Walk in Love for the Lord
“He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

 Forgiveness washes us clean but love can keep us from going from wanting to go back and be repeat offenders of those same sins. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Love can keep us walking in freedom from our past sins. It can keep us from wanting to run back to the bondages that we once found ourselves so easily entangled in. I can think of a time or two when the love of others has kept me on the straight and narrow. How about you? Can you think of times in your life when the love flowing from someone for you has kept you from sin and danger? This is just how our Heavenly Father works. He loves us so much that His love is capable of keeping our faces turned toward righteousness and away from sin in so many instances.

The same thing goes for when we love the Lord with a fervent type of love. It will keep us from the desire of sin in our lives. Now, does this mean that if we keep our love for Christ in a passionate state that we will never sin? No, because we are human. We are bound to miss the mark even when we are not trying to do so on purpose.  But loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength can sure keep us out of a lot of unrighteous situations.

4. Walk in Obedience
“He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11:28

When we hear God’s word and obey what it says this is yet another way of keeping our hearts clean before the Lord. At the very core, this is what our Lord requires of us, to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). We can not walk with God if we are too busy disobeying His word. I would like to point out that this verse does not say blessed are those who hear the word only. The blessing does not come unless we hear and obey. Blessing comes with obedience. One of the blessings we get from obedience is having a clean heart before the Lord.

Lord, Help us to not just look at the outward appearance and pretend that everything is okay while completely ignoring the inner workings of our hearts. Help us to remember that we must walk in forgiveness, walk in humility, walk in love for you and walk in obedience in order for our hearts to be kept pure. You desire for our hearts to be righteousness. Help us not to just clean up the outside, but to clean up the inside as well. Thank you, Lord, for the direction of your word and we desire to walk in obedience to it. In Jesus mighty name, Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment