Devotional Guide For the week of December 2, 2001

Jesus, the Heaven Sent Man

Lift a fig and be obedient

To Read: 2 Corinthians 1-4

To Know:

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20)

Was anyone ever more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees? Did anyone ever want to be? They were ruthlessly righteous. Hardly any want to put themselves through the legalistic lemon squeezer that squeezed the joy out of the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ lives.

What is wrong with Pharisaical righteousness? What was this righteousness anyway? It was a pretense to comply with God’s law. The Lord ordered all work stopped on the Sabbath. To appear to be obedient, the Pharisees redefined work. Work, they said, was lifting the weight of more than two dried figs. This way they opened the door to working on the day of rest while pretending to conform to God’s law.

When Jesus said that one needed to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees in order to enter his kingdom, did he mean reducing the weight we could lift to one dried fig? Or did Jesus mean that true righteousness must be a matter of the heart? Is true righteousness the weight we lift or the will we embrace? The righteousness of Christ does not restrict us, it redirects us. Righteousness is to love what God loves and live the way Jesus lived.

To Do:

The author of Hebrews wrote the verse that best explains authentic righteousness. “Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body thou hast prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God.’ “(Heb. 10:5-7)