Studies by Book
Luke 11 37-54 Repenting from hypocrisy Woe 1
📖 Luke 11:37-54
*God sees the motives of our hearts* _Luke 11:37-54_
We now move to a new section of study in the gospel of Luke under the title of ‘Friend of God’.
In this section our Lord is giving some very stern and confrontational teaching to the Pharisees, the scribes and the lawyers. Was our Lord against these people? No, not at all but the Lord saw their hearts and there, there were several issues that needed correction, which this group people were not willing to undertake. Our Lord longed to bring these people into a relationship with Him but they would not.
_Friends, many of us give only a passing glance at passages such as these and immediately we categorise it in our minds that this teaching does not apply to ‘me’, for I’m not a Pharisee or a scribe._
We are going to take a deep look into this passage and be open for our Lord to correct us, for all of us stand before Him in need of His grace all the time, being open for God to change us more and more into His image _Colossians 3:10._
Jesus was invited by the Pharisee to dine and there were Pharisees and Lawyers present. This seemed a pleasant thing to do but sadly, they had motives behind inviting Jesus. What was their motive to invite Jesus?
We see that in _vs 38._ The Pharisee saw and was shocked that Jesus had not washed before dinner. This was a serious issue for the Pharisee. As our Lord gave His teaching to the Pharisees and the lawyers, they assailed Jesus, vehemently and cross examined with the intent to catch Him in something He would say, with which they would then accuse Him and destroy Him _Luke 11:53-54._
God sees our hearts. We do not know what is going on in another person’s heart but God knows and we know our own hearts _I Samuel 16:7._ Psychologists say that the human personality is similar to an iceberg. The big part of who we are is submerged and not visible. What is visible to the outside world is a small part of our personality. We can decorate and beautify the outside but God judges our motives. _”Character is who we are in the dark”. D L Moody._
The Lord searches all hearts and examines the intent or the motives of our thoughts. Our thoughts are not seen by the world but God see our thoughts and then He goes behind our thoughts and studies our motives, for each thought that we think _I Chronicles 28:9._ This is how we need to stand before God, all the time, conscious that He watches our motives. There, when we realise that our motives are not pleasing to God, which is often, we must repent, turn to Him and surrender to the Holy Spirit to give us godly motives.
If we would be open to Him in such a manner, we will enjoy a deep level of intimacy with our God for His Holy Spirit will engage with our spirit, drawing us closer to Him.
*Thought to ponder*
```It is in the deep relationship with Jesus that we have life.```