Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 278

October 4;   Luke 20:46;   64/260(II);   ‘Beware: Religion’

Luke 20:46 "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, 

Christianity is ‘lumped in’ with religions.  This does Christianity a terrible disservice.  Christianity is a personal relationship with God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Religion is humanity trying to earn heaven and the blessings of whatever god they serve by their efforts.  Christianity is humanity accepting what the Lord Jesus has done for us.  They are completely different.  The worst enemies of Jesus and ultimately the ones that put Him to death were the religious leaders of Israel.  As this verse teaches, religion is proud, the religious leaders reveling in the preferential treatment they received.  Most of these leaders were hypocrites, who cared nothing about the people, desiring only the accolades of the common people, who they looked down upon.  Enter Jesus.  He loved the people, being kind and courteous to them, teaching them how much God the Father loved them and healing those of them who were sick.  The stark contrast between religion and Jesus Christ was and still is so evident.  The love of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus and all of the miracles which He did, quickly turned the adoring attention of the people away from the religious leaders and onto Jesus.  The jealousy of those who should have recognized who Jesus was flared up as Jesus’ popularity increased.  Soon the only desire of the religious leaders was to destroy Jesus and rid themselves of the Son of God.  Jesus’ teachings and how He answered the questions they threw at Him amazed them.  They could not deny the miracles He did. Still their pride and hatred murdered Jesus. Beware: religion.