Jesus’ teachings
The Sermon on the Mount makes this point very clearly. Murder and adultery are two of the ten commandments that most would regard as ‘easy’ to keep. But Jesus shows us the depth of our sins and tells us that if we have hatred towards one another, we are culpable of murder, and if we look lustfully at someone, we have committed adultery in our hearts. Though the physical consequences might be different, and though no one (except for God and ourselves) will know, the state of our hearts is clearly paramount.
Modesty issues are still a pretty big debate in many Christian circles today, but all the nuanced ‘this is acceptable, this is not acceptable’ seems meaningless when we see what Jesus says about lust. In Matthew 5: 27-28, Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Clearly then, purity is also a matter of heart, not just actions. We should be encouraging everyone to pursue purity out of love for Jesus, both in how they dress and how they look at the opposite sex. Dressing modestly flows from this. Shame and judgment and clothing rules do not seem to align with this. The issue of modesty goes a lot deeper than a list of do’s and don’ts.
Jesus continues in verses 29-30: “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
There is no acceptable excuse for sin; we should be prepared to make sacrifices in our lives in order to prevent sin. Sin is our enemy and we should do everything we can to live free from it.
Our motivation should always be to please God, not people. In Matthew 6, Jesus explores this regarding tithes, prayers and fasting.
These are acts of worship; they should not be done with the intention of impressing others. Our tithes should be secret, our prayers should be humble and our fasting should not be announced. Spurgeon put it well: “Keep the thing so secret that even you yourself are hardly aware that you are doing anything at all praiseworthy. Let God be present, and you will have enough of an audience.”
I struggle with praying in front of groups, especially if there are people present who I don’t know very well. There is always a temptation to pray in a way to impress them; to use big ‘Christian-y’ words, to sound passionate but not too emotional, to come across as effortlessly knowledgeable. When did all this become a part of prayer? Prayer is meant to be an outpouring to God; not a way to feel good about ourselves. Even in prayer - in conversation with our Lord - we can be motivated by the wrong thing.
Jesus’ actions
As always, Jesus’ teachings aren’t empty. He lives out what He calls us to do.
In Matthew 12:9-14, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The Pharisees ask Him; “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath,” and He responds; “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Again, Jesus shows us that the motivation and heart behind the action is so much more important than the particulars of the actions themselves. Jesus had compassion for the man, but the Pharisees saw him as a test or bait to try to catch Jesus out.
How often do we deny help to those who need it because our hearts are in the wrong place? We don’t have time to help - valuing busyness and hurry over help - or we’re too concerned with what others will think or say if we approach someone society ignores.
It is always lawful to do good. I think that’s a good reminder to us to actively look out for how we can help others and give them some of our time and attention even though we’d prefer to keep walking by.
In his book ‘The Screwtape Letters,’ C.S. Lewis explores the idea of the difference between the type of person we pretend to be and the type of person we really are.
If I am patient with people at work and in the supermarket and in the queue for the bus, but I cannot demonstrate patience at home with those I love most, then I am not a patient person. I might be able to pretend to the outside world that I am patient, but clearly, the virtue is an act.
In a similar way, I think Jesus was calling out the Pharisees for believing themselves to be righteous because they prayed often and loudly, or because they gave extortionate tithes, but prayers and tithes and fasting can all be done for the wrong reasons. Just because they acted that way for the outside world did not mean it was true. If anything, their preoccupation with making others aware of their actions reveals the shallow-bottomed nature of their worship.
God’s love is enough - why do we add to it?
The way of Jesus is often about going further than required. Be more loving, more kind, more generous than you need to be. This kind of servant-heart is used to describe God’s ideal worshipper in Psalm 15.
Following Jesus is really not about following a list of rules. It’s a lifestyle. It’s not about giving exactly 10% of your earnings to charity; it’s about becoming a generous person who doesn’t treasure material things above God and His kingdom.
Maybe this is why the Pharisees had such a problem understanding Jesus’ teachings. They wanted a black and white list of do’s and don’ts so that they would be certain of their moral goodness. But Jesus calls us to follow Him; to walk in His way and imitate Him. Our purpose is to become more Christ-like, and that’s a full life transformation, not just a list of rules to tack onto our current way of life.
It always frustrated me as a teenager, when Christians refused to give specific examples to answer the question ‘what is modest?’ regarding modest clothing or ‘how far is too far?’ when it comes to physical boundaries in dating. They’d spend twenty minutes talking about purity but never give any helpful advice.
Frustrating as that was, their sentiment was right; I was asking the wrong questions. We can’t distill our faith to simple rules. Our faith transforms us; it infuses us and changes us from inside. Our actions are the fruit of that change; the outworking of our faith. So often we reverse the system (thinking works will lead to salvation), but we’re already saved when we trust in Jesus.
It seems strange that this is such a difficult lesson for us to learn. It’s pretty obvious that Jesus’ burden is truly lighter (Matthew 11: 28-30). It’s lighter than the burden of legalism and the burden of keeping up pretences; Jesus’ burden is a call to live simply and genuinely; being honest with ourselves and with others when we fall short, worshipping God because we love Him and not because of misdirected pride or seeking validation.
In Matthew 9: 11-13, the Pharisees are disdained that Jesus is keeping the company of ‘tax collectors and sinners’ and He instructs them: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I cam not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Sacrifice refers to religious rituals and the purity laws that the Pharisees prided themselves in keeping. But Jesus (quoting from Hosea 6:6) points out that God values genuine participation from His people over ‘burnt offerings’ and ceremonies.
God’s love is enough - why do we add to it? Are we still trying to tell ourselves that we are good enough to reach God through our works? Are we still more concerned with the opinions of man?
Only those aware of their sins can enter the kingdom of God.
Religious hypocrisy is still alive and well today
Jesus’ greatest opposition did not come from atheists or humanists or scientists, or any of the other groups which we might think pose the greatest threat to Christianity today. The people who had the biggest problem with Jesus, and who ultimately orchestrated His death, were the religious leaders of His day. This shows the very real and great danger of false teaching and religious hypocrisy. Just because someone can quote Scripture does not mean they are a follower of Christ. Enforcing religious rules is not proof of salvation. Legalism is still a threat to the church today.
If the religious leaders of His day could call for the death of the Son of God, then it is perfectly possible for us to profess faith and yet be found wanting. We need to examine our hearts; are we motivated by love? Are we following the way of Jesus? Or are our actions the result of misconstrued identity, an attempt to fill in the void that only Jesus can fill? We can quote Bible verses and impressive-sounding theological books and still miss out on the Gospel.
You can know a lot about God without knowing God. At the same time, you can leave yourself stranded by only holding out for ‘big moment’ encounters with the Lord. Like most things, this seems to be a question of balance. Theology is important but it is the means to an end, not the end itself.
We can abuse the love of Jesus (“If Jesus really loves me, He’ll forgive me for doing this [sin I know I should not do]”) but then we’ve missed the point. But we can also go to the other extreme, and hold back from embracing His love, refusing to let it transform our lives.
Call to examine our hearts
So where does this leave us? Where do we go from here?
Hacks and rules for striking this balance in areas like tithes and public prayer might be useful for some, but for now let’s just sit in Jesus’ presence. This is a call to examine our hearts; what is He saying to us? What can I recognise as a source of pride in my own life? Where are my motivations not genuine?
I often find we leap from problem to solution without taking the time to identify how these issues manifest in our lives. Even if it is the same sin, it can crop up differently for each of us.
So right now praying in front of others is something I know I can be tempted to do for the wrong reasons. Part of that is because I am trying to find validation in a group of people I don’t yet know very well. Another part is a hypersensitivity to the differing roles of men and women in ministry at my church. A large part is pride.
Knowing this, I will try to make a conscious effort to pray to God, not for man. I will ask God for His help, for His Spirit to move in me so that my prayers and genuine and effective and encouraging, not because I made them so, but because His Spirit works in me.
Conclusion
People will judge you regardless, so be sure that your motivation is pure. It is better to be concerned with our own hearts than with what others say. Jesus and John the Baptist had very different lifestyles and they were both criticised for how they lived. They said John had a demon, because of his ascetic lifestyle, and they called Jesus ‘a drunkard and a glutton’ for feasting with ‘sinners.’ But both were dedicated to God’s will and lived to bring glory to Him. At the end of the day, our love for God should motivate everything we do.
In Matthew 12:9-14, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The Pharisees ask Him; “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath,” and He responds; “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Again, Jesus shows us that the motivation and heart behind the action is so much more important than the particulars of the actions themselves. Jesus had compassion for the man, but the Pharisees saw him as a test or bait to try to catch Jesus out.
How often do we deny help to those who need it because our hearts are in the wrong place? We don’t have time to help - valuing busyness and hurry over help - or we’re too concerned with what others will think or say if we approach someone society ignores.
It is always lawful to do good. I think that’s a good reminder to us to actively look out for how we can help others and give them some of our time and attention even though we’d prefer to keep walking by.
In his book ‘The Screwtape Letters,’ C.S. Lewis explores the idea of the difference between the type of person we pretend to be and the type of person we really are.
If I am patient with people at work and in the supermarket and in the queue for the bus, but I cannot demonstrate patience at home with those I love most, then I am not a patient person. I might be able to pretend to the outside world that I am patient, but clearly, the virtue is an act.
In a similar way, I think Jesus was calling out the Pharisees for believing themselves to be righteous because they prayed often and loudly, or because they gave extortionate tithes, but prayers and tithes and fasting can all be done for the wrong reasons. Just because they acted that way for the outside world did not mean it was true. If anything, their preoccupation with making others aware of their actions reveals the shallow-bottomed nature of their worship.
God’s love is enough - why do we add to it?
The way of Jesus is often about going further than required. Be more loving, more kind, more generous than you need to be. This kind of servant-heart is used to describe God’s ideal worshipper in Psalm 15.
Following Jesus is really not about following a list of rules. It’s a lifestyle. It’s not about giving exactly 10% of your earnings to charity; it’s about becoming a generous person who doesn’t treasure material things above God and His kingdom.
Maybe this is why the Pharisees had such a problem understanding Jesus’ teachings. They wanted a black and white list of do’s and don’ts so that they would be certain of their moral goodness. But Jesus calls us to follow Him; to walk in His way and imitate Him. Our purpose is to become more Christ-like, and that’s a full life transformation, not just a list of rules to tack onto our current way of life.
It always frustrated me as a teenager, when Christians refused to give specific examples to answer the question ‘what is modest?’ regarding modest clothing or ‘how far is too far?’ when it comes to physical boundaries in dating. They’d spend twenty minutes talking about purity but never give any helpful advice.
Frustrating as that was, their sentiment was right; I was asking the wrong questions. We can’t distill our faith to simple rules. Our faith transforms us; it infuses us and changes us from inside. Our actions are the fruit of that change; the outworking of our faith. So often we reverse the system (thinking works will lead to salvation), but we’re already saved when we trust in Jesus.
It seems strange that this is such a difficult lesson for us to learn. It’s pretty obvious that Jesus’ burden is truly lighter (Matthew 11: 28-30). It’s lighter than the burden of legalism and the burden of keeping up pretences; Jesus’ burden is a call to live simply and genuinely; being honest with ourselves and with others when we fall short, worshipping God because we love Him and not because of misdirected pride or seeking validation.
In Matthew 9: 11-13, the Pharisees are disdained that Jesus is keeping the company of ‘tax collectors and sinners’ and He instructs them: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I cam not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Sacrifice refers to religious rituals and the purity laws that the Pharisees prided themselves in keeping. But Jesus (quoting from Hosea 6:6) points out that God values genuine participation from His people over ‘burnt offerings’ and ceremonies.
God’s love is enough - why do we add to it? Are we still trying to tell ourselves that we are good enough to reach God through our works? Are we still more concerned with the opinions of man?
Only those aware of their sins can enter the kingdom of God.
Religious hypocrisy is still alive and well today
Jesus’ greatest opposition did not come from atheists or humanists or scientists, or any of the other groups which we might think pose the greatest threat to Christianity today. The people who had the biggest problem with Jesus, and who ultimately orchestrated His death, were the religious leaders of His day. This shows the very real and great danger of false teaching and religious hypocrisy. Just because someone can quote Scripture does not mean they are a follower of Christ. Enforcing religious rules is not proof of salvation. Legalism is still a threat to the church today.
If the religious leaders of His day could call for the death of the Son of God, then it is perfectly possible for us to profess faith and yet be found wanting. We need to examine our hearts; are we motivated by love? Are we following the way of Jesus? Or are our actions the result of misconstrued identity, an attempt to fill in the void that only Jesus can fill? We can quote Bible verses and impressive-sounding theological books and still miss out on the Gospel.
You can know a lot about God without knowing God. At the same time, you can leave yourself stranded by only holding out for ‘big moment’ encounters with the Lord. Like most things, this seems to be a question of balance. Theology is important but it is the means to an end, not the end itself.
We can abuse the love of Jesus (“If Jesus really loves me, He’ll forgive me for doing this [sin I know I should not do]”) but then we’ve missed the point. But we can also go to the other extreme, and hold back from embracing His love, refusing to let it transform our lives.
Call to examine our hearts
So where does this leave us? Where do we go from here?
Hacks and rules for striking this balance in areas like tithes and public prayer might be useful for some, but for now let’s just sit in Jesus’ presence. This is a call to examine our hearts; what is He saying to us? What can I recognise as a source of pride in my own life? Where are my motivations not genuine?
I often find we leap from problem to solution without taking the time to identify how these issues manifest in our lives. Even if it is the same sin, it can crop up differently for each of us.
So right now praying in front of others is something I know I can be tempted to do for the wrong reasons. Part of that is because I am trying to find validation in a group of people I don’t yet know very well. Another part is a hypersensitivity to the differing roles of men and women in ministry at my church. A large part is pride.
Knowing this, I will try to make a conscious effort to pray to God, not for man. I will ask God for His help, for His Spirit to move in me so that my prayers and genuine and effective and encouraging, not because I made them so, but because His Spirit works in me.
Conclusion
People will judge you regardless, so be sure that your motivation is pure. It is better to be concerned with our own hearts than with what others say. Jesus and John the Baptist had very different lifestyles and they were both criticised for how they lived. They said John had a demon, because of his ascetic lifestyle, and they called Jesus ‘a drunkard and a glutton’ for feasting with ‘sinners.’ But both were dedicated to God’s will and lived to bring glory to Him. At the end of the day, our love for God should motivate everything we do.