Written by Efe Abbe
The Word
14 The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. 15 Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.
16 “Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in.[or everyone is urged to enter in] 17 But that doesn’t mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God’s law to be overturned.
Luke 16:14-17 NLT
Reflection
Jesus didn’t reiterate His teaching on stewardship when the Pharisees scoffed because they already demonstrated they were incapable of receiving it, rather He responded by cutting right through to their motivation. Luke records that they loved their money (v. 14) and this love of money was the root of a lot of evil.
In Jesus’ day, both tax collectors and Pharisees loved money. Tax collectors who would often overtax their country men to enrich themselves couldn’t hide their sins. Pharisees on the other hand wore a public veneer of “rightness” but Jesus saw right through it and called it detestable because He held them to God’s perfect standard in the Law (v. 17).
This was what the tax collectors (and sinners) who hung around Jesus understood. They could never measure up to the perfection of God’s Law so they were eager to get in the Kingdom when they heard the Good News (v. 16). The Pharisees in their self-deception thought that they were a law onto themselves, but Jesus warned them that they were in for a rude awakening.
Application
Jesus didn’t mince words with the Pharisees because He knew the eternal consequence of their refusal to believe in Him. Because God’s Law and its just requirements will never pass away, we all have a debt of death to pay God for not living perfectly righteously as He requires in His Law. This is weighty but not the end of our story. The Good News is that God lovingly gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins so that His inspired words through the Apostle Paul are true for anyone who believes in Jesus:
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power[Greek: the law] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[Some manuscripts read me] from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[Greek: our flesh] So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
Romans 8:1-4 NLT
Prayer
Dear Holy Father, thank You for having mercy on me. Knowing that I would never measure up to Your perfect Law, You gave Your Son Jesus, sacrificing Him so that the just requirements of the Law would be met for me, amen.
City Life Starter 
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