SEPTEMBER 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

 

SEPTEMBER 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28

 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, each day as I awake to start another day, my mind turns to 

thoughts of this daily prayer to You and my soul is touched that You 

and the Father have made Yourself available to us 24/7/365-Forever! 

You Lord have never changed and we know You are the same 

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow and that is a comforting thought,

 especially when I think that Your Character is based solely on

 WHO YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO BE and not on what this world 

of sinners chooses to do — Lord, we lie, we cheat, we steal, 

we are sexually immoral to a fault, our society is now killing our 

unborn children and we claim we have the “right” to decide by a 

majority vote the moral standard by which we desire to live in

 moral decay — and all along we reject the only solution

 to our growing problem — Your Forgiveness! 

Yet, You Lord continue to LOVE us and extend Your Invitation

 of Forgiveness and Salvation because that is 

WHO GOD CHOOSES TO BE! 

Lord Jesus, I know I fall short of Your Glory even on my best 

days and I fully understand that all my good deeds done by this defiled 

body are but as filthy rags so LORD JESUS, may I decrease and 

let You increase in my daily life and may I grow daily in Christ 

until the day that Your Righteousness will shine in my life instead of 

my wretched soul casting a dark shadow that surrounds a sin-filled life!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been greeted as the Son of David by the multitudes 

but the religious leaders were skeptical that this was the Messiah

 and therefore they started confronting Jesus trying to “expose” Him

 as an imposter but each “test”, Jesus used these “exams of 

His Character” to prove that He was the Chosen One and then used

 the circumstance to reveal another Truth of God. If we look at 

this next section <Matthew 22:15-40> we see that the religious rulers,

 scribes, and elders that were holding onto their “traditions” and 

the “doctrines of men” were blinded to the Truth that Jesus was God’s Son.

 Even though their “physical” eyes beheld Jesus doing

 “wonderful things” their “spiritual” eyes were blinded by their desires

 to maintain their lofty titles and important offices, hence they “plotted”

 against Jesus — but “how” they intended to catch Him was like trying

 to put out a fire with gasoline! So far the religious rulers have

 included the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the Pharisees,

 the Herodians, and the Sadducees. Each of these “power and authority”

 groups had sent representatives which were “lawyers” and they 

were trying to use “the law”  to expose “The Law Giver” and instead

 of putting out the “fire” with their “legalist gasoline” they were 

actually fanning the flames! Jesus in this section not only proves 

He is the “Law Giver” and has come to “fulfill the Law and the Prophets”,

 Jesus also uses these attacks to introduce 

“THREE Spiritual Laws” 

as He answers each attack from these set out to prove Him a fake?

 The THREE Spiritual Laws are: 

Spiritual Law #1 

 “Render unto God the things that are God’s things.”

  (Matthew 22:21) 

Spiritual  Law #2 

“The Great I AM is not the God of the dead,

 but of the living.” 

(Matthew 22:32) 

Spiritual  Law #3 

“You shall love the LORD your God 

with all your heart, with all your soul, 

and with all your mind, 

and also you 

shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

 (Matthew 22:37-40) 

Jesus introduces the THREE Spiritual Laws with a question directed

 at the religious rulers that had “plotted” against  Him: 

“Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18) 

The Holy Scriptures then documents how Jesus answered the

 questions of the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees

 and their “legalist” attacks and used each situation to Teach the

 THREE Spiritual Laws.

 This is a good time for all of us to reflect on all the times that we

 as individuals and as a society have tried to “legislate morality”  according

 to our own selfish desires and blinded ourselves to the 

Truth of God that He is the Law Giver 

and not “one jot, or one tittle” of God’s Law will pass away 

until all the Law is fulfilled — IN GOD’S WAY and IN GOD’S TIMING 

— and when we realize that LAW is really the thing that belongs to God,

 then we will begin to uphold Spiritual Law #1 and

 “Render unto God the things that are God’s” 

and we will find ourselves healed of our “spiritual blindness” !!!