Matthew 23 - Hypocrisy

This chapter teaches important lessons about hypocrisy, and thereby some ideas of what a good focus should be.

These are some of the things that I notice.  

The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Some of the things that we should be avoiding:

• Saying, and not doing.
• Having others bear the burden, while not bearing the burden ourselves.
• Doing things to be seen, to be popular, famous, etc.
• Love to be called the Leader.
• Close the Kingdom of Heaven, change doctrines, tell people they cannot achieve it, etc.
• Do not go into Heaven, nor allow others into Heaven.
• Drain the widows, while pretending to be good, making long prayers, flowery, emotional talks, etc.
• Proselyte in a pretense of caring, and make the convert more evil than yourselves.
• Justify breaking covenants.
• Making things like tithing, etc., take precedence over the more important parts of the Law, like Justice, Mercy, Faith, etc.!
• Justify horrible sins in yourselves, but pick at little details in others.
• Look good on the outside, but full of sin on the inside.
• Say you would not have killed the prophets, but here you are mocking and saying evil of those sent by God.

Some of the things that we should be doing:

• Keep the Law of God.
• Bear the burdens.
• Do lots of good, do not be seen.
• Be humble, be a servant.
• Make the path strait.
• Go into Heaven, and show others how to go into Heaven.
• Care for the widows, orphans, infirm, victims, poor, etc., making sure they want for nothing!
• Proselyte, and help the converts rise further than you.
• Never break covenants!
• The important parts of the Gospel, Justice, Mercy, Faith, always come first, but we are still required to do the lesser parts of the Law as well.
• Get the sins out of ourselves, throw a cloak of charity over others.
• Clean the inside!  
• Feel, think, say, and do only good to others.  

If we are to believe the Saviour, hypocrisy is going to cause a lot of Grief.   

Best to get it out!   

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Willing To Help

Reading through the scriptures I find many instances where a calamity is about to strike, at which times, the Lord sends messengers to warn the people of impending danger and to give them advice which will protect them.  It always amazes me when the people in those events choose not to even consider the message, nor to test the message with the keys of discernment, nor to even take the message to the Lord for confirmation.  Often, those people just ignored or mistreated the messengers, and then did not prepare for the upcoming calamity, and sadly, suffered greatly.

The Lord is always willing to help.  Always willing to warn us of impending danger.  Always willing to give us good counsel to keep us safe and healthy.  And even when we did not listen the first time, the Lord has endless patience to try again to help us!

What a great God!!!  

The thing is, even though the Lord always gives us the heads up, it is up to us to stay in the Spirit often, to hear the counsel of the Lord.

It is my observation that, the messengers in the scriptures would often show up and counsel people to return to the ways of the Lord, in which state those people would then be able to hear the Spirit of the Lord, and be led to safety.

If anyone is not hearing the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord, I would counsel returning to the ways of the Lord.  The Lord gives us directions as to how to live our lives, so that we will always be able to clearly hear the Spirit of the Lord, which will direct us to safety.  

It is the desire of the Lord that, His children reach their fullest potential, based on their agency of course.

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