Thursday; July 16
When Jesus came to the earth, one of His tasks seems to have been to bring clarity to religion. Sure, there was godly religion (and had been for centuries), but with the new movement came a refocus on what was important. Many of these principles are outlined in the Sermon on the Mount. One of these observations probably raised quite a few eyes. When Jesus noted, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) He may not have made many friends. What makes this so interesting is that some of the most religious people of this society were thought to be the scribes and Pharisees. They seemed to know the Law, but they appear to be lacking in righteousness. The may have sounded good … they may have looked good … but they just weren’t good. It is easy for us to criticize the pseudo-religious of the First Century, but we need...