Letter and Spirit (Matthew 23:13)
Category : Blogpost
What sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law, and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.
Some people’s focus is so narrow that they “can’t see the forest for the trees.” Inflexible, ill-conceived beliefs truncate their range of vision, blinding them to the beauty and richness of other points of view.
In their judgment, their way of doing things is the only right way, without exception.
The same principle applies to self-righteousness. The Pharisees excluded people. Matthew 23:13 warns them to stop shutting the door of the Kingdom in people’s faces based on narrow interpretations of Scripture. Jesus calls them hypocrites because they fail to practice what they preach and keep others from entering based on narrow interpretations of the law.
A broader view of righteousness includes following the law in both its letter and its Spirit. Jesus said, unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:20).