July 5, 2023
Passage Read: Matthew 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:7-10
Thought
Right out of the gate, John seems pretty hostile to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious people. It's as if he recognizes that they have a problem with appearances over substance. They're all about looking right, but not necessarily about doing right. Everyone needs repentance, but these religious people think they're mostly fine, just need to jump on the latest religious thing. John knows they need repentance, but they just think they need to add one more righteous marker to their lives, and they're even better.
Application
People who think they're good are perhaps the hardest to reach. They need a special warning, a next level warning. They think they've done so great, but the fruit of their lives is disaster, and that is the ultimate test of spiritual faithfulness and true uprightness. If they were really all that great, then the nation should have had no need for a revival and a Savior. How eternally true this is: It is so easy to become spiritually proud, but the real marker of spirituality worth being proud of is spiritual humility and teachableness. The one least needing repentance is the one who is always struggling for greater closeness and perfection, the one who never thinks they're very close to what God desires and so invests so much energy and effort in seeking to know the Lord better and walk better in His ways. Like Moses, who knew the Lord better than anyone, talked face to face with Him, but still asked the Lord to show Himself to him that he might know Him better and walk more perfectly in His ways. It's a paradox: The ones most needing repentance are the ones who think they need it least; the ones who need it least are the ones who are never satisfied and always seeking to do better. The spiritually proud need a sledgehammer to warn and wake them; the spiritually humble just need guidance to make sure they're moving in the right direction. I need to guard against that pride and never be satisfied with where I am with God, but always be seeking to know Him better and walk more perfectly in His ways. I also need to be bold with those who act the part of the spiritually proud, because if they're actually humble, they won't mind, and if they're actually proud, they need a good wake-up call.