Day 270, Year 1

Handling the Hindrances Others Pose to Your Faith

… “For you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13b NKJV)

At the gate of the kingdom of heaven, believers may encounter some people who do not enter but prevent others from entering. When facing such a situation, we can observe the problems they have in their thoughts, lives, and beliefs, and then consider how we should respond to them in accordance with God’s wisdom. This is because these people who stand in the way of His kingdom are likely to be inconsistent in their words and deeds, self-contradictory, and have divine logical problems, etc.

“Nor … allow those who are entering to go in” in today’s verse reminds me of the Pharaoh in the Exodus. At that time, he forbade the Israelites from leaving Egypt to worship God in the wilderness. This raises the question of whether believers should resist evil authority before us or not. In the New Testament, the Pharisees, etc., used disguise and distortion, rather than military force, to hinder people from worshiping God. So, believers who want to enter His kingdom must overcome all the trials of pretense, disguise, or distortion of His Word. As for those with little faith, they should try to distance themselves from all hypocrites, lest their remaining honesty and faith be substantially extinguished by them.

Throughout history, many people have distorted God’s truth, causing others to believe mistakenly that they can enter His kingdom. For instance, some advocate that Christians even sin, as long as they confess, they will finally be forgiven by the Lord. This claim that any sin can be forgiven by God stems from the weakness of human nature, as many people like to indulge themselves. Those who indulge themselves yet want to be saved create this seemingly “gospel” message. However, it contradicts several scriptures, including 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 26 to 27, and Revelation chapter 22 verse 15. Thus, believers are to use the relevant scriptures to retort to all these hypocrites.

In the age of information explosion, we need to think more when encountering Bible interpretation issues and carefully seek verification in the Bible to avoid being misled. We should be familiar with the Bible and intentionally expose the deceptions and distortions in order to resist the distortions and confusion brought by false teachings. Moreover, we need to overcome all difficulties to enter God’s kingdom, avoid superficial satisfaction and stimulation, expose the deceptions and temptations behind superficialities, diligently understand the truth, and be willing to pay any price to obey God’s Word.

Reflection questions:

1) Are you familiar enough with the Bible? And do you have sufficient sensitivity and alertness to discern and retort the deceptions behind distorted teachings and superficialities?

2) Do you need to distance yourself from hypocrites so as to maintain your honesty, and even go one step further to rely on the Lord to change the hypocrites around you? If yes, what are you going to do?