Integrity Over Displays of Holiness

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

Faith is needed over the acts of religion in today’s heated and bitter climate.

Today’s devotional reading: Matthew 23:13-14, 23-33

“Don’t do as the scribes and the Pharisees,” is what Jesus warned (Matt. 23:2-3), yet many are following in their path. The scribes and Pharisees were notorious for their displays of faith. Jesus spoke of how they preached the law, but did not live the law. Rather than loving and helping their neighbors, they weighed them down with burdens too heavy to bear.

If you call yourself a child of God, the last thing you ought to be is a burden to someone. No, the child of God ought to be a helping hand rather than a hand that beats down. We are to be leaders that lead unto glory rather than outer darkness.

The child of God, Paul wrote, should be ready in season and out of season to convince, rebuke, and exhort (encourage). You must be ready to teach, or to train/lift up with all patience, which is to say, with all grace. You cannot bear good fruit, producing righteousness, if your way is one of bitterness and wrath.

As it is said in Proverbs 11:2-3, “When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” Be genuine in how you move, putting integrity and sincerity over displays of holiness. Fake holiness is never bought and pushes hearts away from the Lord.