And he said to them, “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16:15 NABRE
Jesus is teaching about focusing on the true God, we cannot love God and serve worldly riches and power. The Pharisees hear these things and sneer at Jesus, because it is said they love money. Jesus points out the hypocritical disparity between the Pharisee’s appearance and their reality. They justify themselves, complaining about tax collectors. But as lovers of money they placed their treasure and hence their heart in the wrong place and God knows their hearts. They may be held in high esteem among the people, but they will be brought low in the reversal being preached by Jesus. Jesus describes them as an abomination, a rather strong word, a word typically used to refer to the worship of false gods. Jesus is implying their love of money is tantamount to idolatry, they are not serving God but mammon, i.e. worldly riches.
We too are known by God, not for the esteem we seek but for what is in our heart. Jesus has used several examples, we commit adultery in our heart (Matthew 5:27), a son working in a field even after saying he would not (Matthew 21:28-29) both indicating what is in our heart is most important. God sees and knows our heart, judging us based on what it contains. We may speak non-belief and unloving words but if in our heart we believe and love, God will know and judge us righteous. We must not be concerned with what others think of us, how the world judges us, we must keep our heart true and know it is revealed to God. We must never let our heart become an abomination.
How do you protect your heart? What does your heart say about you?
We must not be concerned with what others think of us, how the world judges us, we must keep our heart true and know it is revealed to God. We must never let our heart become an abomination. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity #dailybibleverse @youversion #BeAnEncourager #heart #abomination #Luke #everybodyalways #god #jesuschrist #jesussaves #godisgood #dailydevotion #biblestudy #scripture #bibleverse #verseoftheday #cross #last #gospels #loveeachother #godisgreat #thisVineyard #youversion #everythingalways