“You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23, NIV)
We all have friends who play golf with half a game. Actually, some of those “friends” are our very selves! We don’t take time to learn, don’t have time to practice, and really don’t care enough to play a whole lot better. Fair enough. It is, after all, only a game. Maybe we shouldn’t be giving it more attention than we already do.
But when it comes to your walk with Jesus, your daily commitment to learning and progression in the faith come by way of mindful attention to the work at hand. You know God, you love God, and so you make daily efforts to serve him as he would and should be served.
At least that’s the plan.
In truth, many of us are much like the Pharisees and teachers of the law whom Jesus was addressing with strong words of warning in Matthew 23. We pick the practices in righteousness that are simplest or most comfortable for us, or show us in the best light compared to others, and we make a religious emphasis of these. If we aren’t prone to gossip, we look askance at those who do and look past our own tendency toward, say, greed.
Jesus noticed this in those religious leaders of his time. They were cherry-picking their righteousness from the big list of God’s directives, his law. Jesus called them on their poor-roundedness.
But as usual, what was even more important than the particulars of the Pharisees’ goods and bads was the conditions of their hearts. Jesus recognized that they were being “righteous” where and how it served them best, and in so doing they had missed the heart of God.
This is the error we make when we do not establish the foundations of knowledge of God and love for God before we begin our activity in serving him. Our motives betray us.
A good golfer must understand the game, especially laying hold of the methods and mindsets of those who do it best. Through this understanding, the golfer’s love for the game grows (the same is true in other disciplines as well, where a knowledge of the nuances and details deepens appreciation). With these in place, the golfer’s work at the game doesn’t seem much like work at all. Rather, it’s the fleshing out of one’s respect for the game itself.
God is served best in this same way—when he is known deeply and broadly and loved fully. What proceeds then is a service that reflects his nature and his glory.
—
Jeff Hopper
March 10, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.