I devoted my previous blog entry (Take Off the Mask of Religion) to one of the most fake and divisive issues in the Body of Messiah – the mask of religion. Religion will divide us, but faith will unite us!

I quoted Yeshua’s condemnation over the scribes and Pharisees when He said:

““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.” Matt 23:25-26

I also wrote that, “We tend to dismiss what our Messiah said here because He spoke directly to the Scribes and Pharisees of His day. But the truth is that these words are just as relevant for us, His followers, today as they were over two thousand years ago! Yeshua was “calling out” the dishonest outwardly acts of the Scribes and Pharisees because they were hiding behind a mask of piety and religiosity, while the inside of the “cup” was dirty and rotted. He called them hypocrites because He could see into their hearts and their outward religious acts meant nothing. “

Sadly, we still struggle with this in the Body of Messiah today, and in many ways, we repeat the same mistakes of the super religious Pharisees; we are very quick to praise and honor someone based on his or her outward acts and appearance, rather than looking at one’s heart. The danger in doing this is that we can even start to think more highly of ourselves, putting ourselves higher than others, thinking that we are more righteous and holy than others, which in turn causes us to judge others.

The root of this problem is our pride! One may read the verse above and look down at the scribes and Pharisees, condemning them for their behavior, while totally missing the fact that the Lord is speaking the same message to us today!

Our pride prevents us from seeing our real selves. Our pride prevents us from seeing the sin in our lives. Our pride makes us think that we are better than others. Our pride causes us to put on a mask because we are afraid of what others may think about us because they will see the true us.

“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way, and the perverted mouth, I hate.” Proverbs 8:13

It’s very interesting that in the above verse, it’s written, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil” and then goes on to list pride as the first sin of the “evil way.” Pride is absolutely the root of our sin!

My dear brothers and sisters, when we allow pride to take control of our lives, we become blind to that which pleases the Lord. Let us take this upcoming week to be humble and open before the Lord, to ask Him to search our hearts, and rid ourselves of the pride within us. It is not an easy task, but it will change your walk with the Lord forever.

Shabbat Shalom,

Moran