Day 268, Year 1

Can Hypocrites Possess Knowledge?

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52 NASB)

In the Gospel of Luke, several verses are similar to those in Matthew 23, but their points also slightly differ. Today’s verse raises a question: can hypocrites possess the key to knowledge? According to Jesus, they can indeed possess true knowledge of God. Referring to the relevant verses in Matthew, if the verses can interpret each other, then the “key of knowledge” held by the lawyers and Pharisees could really lead people into the kingdom of heaven.

The knowledge in the Old Testament (OT) is valuable and can lead people into the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven, or the Kingdom of God, is a place governed by Him. The OT contains many sections that teach people how to accept God’s reign before Jesus came. This includes adjusting and correcting our wrong mentality and values, learning wisdom, and so on. With this foundation, it becomes easier for people to accept God’s governance. Just as many of the previous devotionals quoted the OT, the OT is indeed worth studying. In fact, Jesus encourages people to study the law; the mistakes of the lawyers and Pharisees, etc., lie not in studying, but in their responses and actions to that. Some believers, seeing Jesus harshly rebuking the lawyers, Pharisees, etc., mistakenly thought that it was wrong to seek and study the knowledge in the OT. However, they misunderstood Jesus. For me, had those lawyers really taken away the “key of knowledge,” I would have taken back the key and invited more people into God’s kingdom if I were a person of that time. What would you do if you were a person of that time?

Wise people can separately understand bad people and their good deeds. Fools discard all the bad people and everything associated with them that feels tainted. The wise, on the other hand, will first cleanse themselves through the blood of the Lord Jesus and the Word of God. Take today’s verse as an example, the wise will pursue true knowledge and even take the key to knowledge, while completely abandoning all hypocrisy, discarding the bad habits of knowing what is good but not doing it, and so on. In other words, wise people can learn from them, receive the key to knowledge, and then sever ties with them completely, leading others to better apply the key of divine knowledge and then enter the kingdom of heaven together.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you think the Old Testament is significant and influential? Have you read the Old Testament once? If so, do you understand the main points of it?

2) Is it easy for you to understand bad people and their good deeds as separate? And why should we do so?