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Chuck Swindoll’s ‘Insight for Today’ Daily Devotional is here. Insight for Today provides practical, relevant insight into today’s issues with Biblical principles applied. This devotional will help you connect with God on a daily basis, while also equipping you with a Bible-based approach to transforming your everyday life. Insight for Today” is a daily devotional written by Chuck Swindoll.
The Topic of Chuck Swindoll Daily Devotional 8th February 2023 Is “The Pure in Heart”.
Scripture: Matthew 23:13–29
13 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.*
15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell* you yourselves are!
16 “Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’
17 Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred?
18 And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding.
19 How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20 When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it.
21 And when you swear ‘by the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it.
22 And when you swear ‘by heaven,’ you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.
23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens,* but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!*
25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish,* and then the outside will become clean, too.
27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed.
TODAY’S INSIGHT – 8TH FEBRUARY 2023.
When Jesus spoke of being “pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8), He emphasized the inner person . . . the motive . . . the “heart.” The phrase does not refer simply to doing the right things but doing the right things for the right reason. Being free from duplicity, hypocrisy, and/or sham. God desires His servants to be “real” people—authentic to the core. The portrait He paints is realistic.
In Jesus’s day, many of the religious authorities that claimed to serve the people were not “pure in heart.” Far from it! Hypocritical and phony, they played a role that lacked internal integrity. In Matthew 23—one of the most severe rebukes against hypocrisy in the entire Bible—we find words in strong contrast with the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. Instead of eight “Blessed are you’s,” there are eight “Woe to you’s.” Count them—Matthew 23:13, 14, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, and 29!
Woe unto whom? Well, read verses 25–28.
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. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (23:25–28)
Wow, Jesus said that! It is doubtful He despised anything among those who claimed to serve God more than hypocrisy—a lack of purity of heart. Did you notice what characterized the phony Pharisees?
They were big on rules and little on godliness.
They were big on externals and little on internals.
They were big on public commands and little on personal obedience.
They were big on appearance and little on reality.
On the outside, they “appeared righteous to men,” but inwardly they were “full of dead men’s bones . . . full of hypocrisy.” Why did He hate that so much? Because it represented the antithesis of servanthood. Time after time, therefore, He announced, “Woe to you . . . !”
Back to Matthew 5:8—the “pure in heart.” Jesus extols this virtue. The term pure literally means “clean.” It’s the idea of being uncontaminated, without corruption or alloy. Without guile . . . sincere and honest in motive.
About Chuck Swindoll Daily Devotional “Today’s Insight”.
Today’s Insight is written by Chucks Swindoll. Chuck Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God’s Word and His grace. Since 1988 he has served as the founder and senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Texas, but his listening audience extends far beyond a local church body. The radio broadcast of this devotional program has aired for more than 35 years. Read more.
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