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Appearances or Truth?

Appearances or Truth?
Words of Faith 10-28-16
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2016
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
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John 7
[19] Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"
[20] "You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?"
[21] Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. [22] Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. [23] Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? [24] Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."

This conversation sounds so much like the debates of Holy Week even though they took place months earlier. In fact, this encounter with the crowds and teachers of the Law foreshadows the same sort of conflict that would come later during Holy Week, also at a festival time.
The crowd was dynamic and divided. Some were opposed to Jesus. Others were ready to embrace Jesus as “the Christ” but probably had in their minds a revolutionary leader quite different from Jesus. Others were on the fence, not sure what to believe.
Jesus confronted those leaders who had in mind to kill Him. Part of the enormous hypocrisy and corruption of the religious leaders at the time of Jesus was that they were willing to actually kill in order to promote their cause. Their cause was at least theoretically based in the Law, which forbids murder! “Why are you trying to kill me?” Jesus asked.
The response was even more telling. Rather than repent of their self-centered and murderous religiosity, they insulted Jesus as being “demon possessed”. They called the light darkness. It is one thing to curse the darkness but quite another to curse the light. Even so they appeared to be very religious and devout in doing so. Hatred can appear devout but it is still hatred.
Jesus pushed the confrontation further by addressing one of the chief accusations against Him, which was that He had healed people on the Sabbath. A person could be stoned for breaking the Sabbath. But did it make sense that healing by the power of God was breaking the Sabbath?
After all, circumcisions of baby boys were performed on the eighth day after their birth even if that was a Sabbath. Was this not “work”? If the “work” required for the covenant of circumcision could be performed on the Sabbath then could not God’s healing power be manifest? Jesus put his opponents to the mat with a brilliant rabbinical argument.
Here is the point: “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."
This is a powerful principle. Faith is dynamic. Faith is relational. We have a relationship with God not just a set of religious rules. When we determine how to live and minister we must look not only to the detailed rulings of the Law but to the Spirit of that Law. We must look to our relationship with the Creator who made both the creation and the Law.
That means we must not judge by “appearances”, what LOOKS to be religious or irreligious. Instead we must listen to the Spirit to determine a path. Jesus was calling those who would hear to confront their own rigid religiousness and consider the only valid alternative, a real and living relationship with God.
Jesus calls us to confront our own religiousness. Do we tend to live by rules or relationship? Do we judge by appearances or seek the truth? Do habits and traditions govern us or are we listening for direction from the one true and living God? Are we living by “appearances” or making “right judgments” rooted in a vital relationship with God?

Lord, I get tired of being religious. I want the real thing. I want a relationship with You. I want and need the day to day, moment to moment guidance of Your Spirit. Come dwell in me. In Jesus’ name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2002, 2016
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.