Luke 11:43 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Luke 11:43

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Here is another distinct charge against them. Their mind is constantly on their reputation, the honour they receive from others. They may feign modesty, but secretly they are angling for a complement, or some indication that others regard them as special. They hope it is going to come. They do just enough to encourage it without appearing to be seeking it. So they make sure they are easily identified as the great men they are. When that greeting comes, they are convinced they deserve it. This is what they have been waiting for. This is the reason so much of what they do has been done. This is payback time for them, when their religious devotion has earned them what they wanted all along. Were they living so as to be seen by God? No, he sees in secret. He doesn’t need us to parade our good works in order to be aware of them. Human pride is insatiable. It feeds off praise, and every time it is fed, its appetite grows bigger. It cannot be content with second place; it wants the uppermost seats in the synagogue. There are the seats arranged for the leaders. Everyone must know who they are, and watch them as they solemnly take their place. To lose that place of honour is to have their world come crashing down. They have nothing left because they have invested all in this world. It is everything to them, and they have nothing of any real value in the kingdom of heaven. Their treasure is on earth, just as much as the hoarder of silver and gold. Once they leave the earth they have left behind everything that they ever thought worth having. What good can the praise of men do us? It cannot deliver us from death. It cannot ease our suffering in hell. It cannot act as an advocate for us when the Lord condemns us.

Application

This is the way Christ exhorts his disciples to cut off all opportunity for the flesh to boast: by doing our good works in secret, where only God can see them. That working in secret is itself an act of mortification of the old nature. But this is his devastating analysis of the motivation and goals of the religious hypocrite.

Pride is a terrible and persistent enemy of all, and it is one of those sins which cannot be easily and quickly dispensed with. It is not in the category of those things that should not once be named among us. The battle against pride is a long and hard battle that every believer has to fight, especially those who are called to office in the church of God. Only by persistent watchfulness and self-denial can it be brought under control.

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Luke 11:43 Commentary and Bible Study