Atos 23

Atos 23

Hendriksen comments: “Passover was just around the corner. This meant that the pilgrims, streaming into Jerusalem from every direction, near the city was many a whitewashed tomb. With powdered lime dust a few weeks earlier the burial places had been made to look spick-and-span, neat and trim. They had been made conspicuous, lest any pilgrim should render himself ceremonially ‘unclean’ by inadvertently coming into contact with a corpse or a human bone. … Yet, on the inside such graves were full of dead men’s bones and all kinds of dirt and debris” (New Testament Commentary: Matthew). The expression is found in literature, e.g., in Milton’s Tetrachordon (1.16.40), which says of a hypocrite: “his owne house, and the whole neighbourhood/Sees his foule inside through his whited skin.” THOUGHT from David Platt - Are we focused on outward cleanliness instead of inward holiness? This is exactly what we’ve seen all throughout the book of Matthew: The tendency of the scribes and Pharisees to observe rules and regulations, principles and practices on the outside, while neglecting humility and purity on the inside. And Jesus reminds them through this fierce denunciation: Purity always begins in the heart. You don’t clean the outside of a cup; you clean the inside, and the outside will become clean. When all you do is focus on the outside, when your religion is all about external improvement, you become like a whitewashed tomb. Oh, hear this: Religion is a subtly dangerous cover-up for spiritual deadness. Do we see this in our lives? We go to church, we attend small group, we read the Bible, we walk through the motions, we check off the boxes, but if we’re not careful, we miss the point. In all our efforts at moral renewal, trying to be better people, we only cover up the curse of sin that lies at the core of who we are. Religion is a subtly dangerous cover-up for spiritual deadness, so we must ask ourselves: Is there life inside us? Is there inner transformation that is happening within us? Are our hearts being changed so that we desire Christ more than we desire the things of this world? Is there love, is their affection for Christ at the root of our obedience? Is Christianity a matter of duty for you, or is it a matter of delight? Is holiness being joyfully cultivated in your heart? (The Danger of Damnation) Hunt - Those members of the Sanhedrin may or may not have been shocked by the order from Ananias to strike Paul in the mouth, but we can be sure they are shocked now! Observe that Paul does not ask someone present to strike Ananias, nor does he express a desire to do so himself. He says, “God is going to strike you” (which demonstrates a far more biblical understanding of divine judgment than members of the Sanhedrin possessed). Robertson calls this “a picturesque way of calling Ananias a hypocrite, undoubtedly true, but not a particularly tactful thing for a prisoner to say to his judge, not to say Jewish high priest. Besides, Paul had hurled back at him the word tuptein (smite) in his command, putting it first in the sentence (tuptein se mellei ho theos) in strong emphasis. Clearly Paul felt that he, not Ananias, was living as a good citizen in God's commonwealth” Jesus had made a similar denunciation of the Pharisees in his scathing series of rebukes (8 ti mes He says "Woe to you!") in Matthew 23 “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. (Mt 23:27,28) William