The Parable Of The Two Sons & The Pharisee And Publican: The Power Of Humility, The Danger Of Pride Series

They had learned so well to follow the law of Moses. Yet despite having the entire Torah memorized, and the prophets, and the psalms and proverbs, which all point to the coming of Jesus, their pride blinded them to the truth.

Just as I was once blind to the truth. And just as many are now blind to the truth in our world today.

So this spoke directly to what they were thinking about Jesus.

Have you ever had someone not like you because of a misunderstanding and you knew that if they could get over that misunderstanding that you could have a good relationship with them? But then realized that they just can’t get past it. They won’t listen. Maybe that’s kind of how Jesus felt, he knew he could save them, but they just couldn’t get past the law of Moses. They couldn’t see beyond it to the coming of Jesus. And it cost them everything.

So since we are not Jews under the Torah, but are New Testament believers in Jesus, what can we take this from this parable today?

We can stay humble to what God is doing in our lives. And stay humble for God to correct us on our theology, our understanding of Him, on how we love people, on maybe a sin that’s in our lives that he’s convicting us about, but maybe we’re ignoring or resisting that leading from God.

It’s been on my heart lately, so many Christians in the world today have messed up theology. Many, many, many Christians I know who are otherwise very doctrinally sound don’t believe in spiritual gifts, or the five fold ministry, they say certain things have ended, they disallow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and leading, and reject certain gifts they think have ceased. Certain Christians are very focused on Mary, and the eucharist, and statues and candles, and I feel like they're missing things about God. Certain people just operate in a sort of dead religion. Others teach once saved always saved, a doctrine that can lead people to complacency and sin. Some even teach gay marriage is affirmed by scripture. Some teach Jesus isn’t really God. It’s just crazy.

We have to be so careful with how we understand who God is. Always keep scripture first. Sometimes we get caught up in these man made systems, Arminianism vs. Calvinism and we forget to keep the scripture first, and instead we make scripture secondary to our theology. Never do that. Always keep scripture first, don’t try to force God into a box. And then we can get puffed up about theology too, and get arrogant about it. Watch out for that. Stay humble. Stay hungry for the raw truth about who God is, and let your preconceptions about what you think God is be overruled time and again by new things you hadn’t seen in the scriptures before, whether it be his deep love or his severe wrath or his justice or his mercy or his forgiveness or his grace or his anger or his divine beauty.

Stay humble, don’t miss something God is doing because you’re caught up in man made systems or old ideas not based on the word of God, or worse ideas based on cherry picked verses that exclude other verses, some only take the harsh verses and make an idol of God as a cruel task master, more so today some make an idol of God who is all love and no justice, who is all mercy and no wrath, and they pervert God’s character just as much as the cruel task master version.