Title: God's Standard (Luke 18:9-14)
We humans have several appearances. First of all, I am myself as others see me.
When people introduce themselves to others, they often hide or reduce their shortcomings or weaknesses and highlight only their pride or strengths. What is lacking is who you are, and what is good is what you are, but you expect others to remember only your good points. Therefore, in general, the understanding of one person is bound to differ from person to person. Anyone who sees the good in a person speaks good things about him, and he who sees bad things about him speaks badly about him.
Next, we have ourselves as God sees us. God is always looking at life. The Bible says that He knows when I sit down and when I stand up. Moreover, even if a nursing mother forgets her child, God does not forget us. Because God knows me well. People of faith are people who are always conscious of how God will see me.
Then there is the self that you see. Everyone has their own way of looking at themselves. However, in the way you see yourself, it is very important to know what you perceive as your appearance between what others see you and how God sees you. Everyone is kind to themselves. So, you think you are more right than others see you. Socrates said to know yourself.
Today's message is Jesus' message to the Pharisees who believed in themselves as righteous and despised others. This verse is talking about a life that has become the center of your life. It is said that those who believe in themselves as righteous have a heart structure that despises others. Always relative righteousness in every way makes a relative sinner in the other way. The most important thing to watch out for is to brag about your relative righteousness.
This means that you should not condemn others in order to reveal your own righteousness. You shouldn't make other people a sinner to justify yourself. You shouldn't judge the lives of others in order to glorify your own life. Because these things happen so universally to us, we often live without even realizing that we are making these mistakes ourselves.
Mary came to Jesus with very expensive perfume, broke the alabaster and poured it on Jesus' feet. At this time, Judas said that the expensive perfume was wasted. Jesus said that this woman did a good job. He said he prepared my business. Judas Iscariot criticized the actions of others in order to justify his thoughts to others. They couldn't see how beautiful and holy what others had done. Anyone who puts himself at the center will trample on the beauty of others. Even devotion to God can be criticized. Even the things that please the Lord are criticized.
If you ask people who have been to prison, 7-8 out of 10 say they came in without guilt. People who enter prison usually curse the world and other people in order to tell them that they are innocent. Furthermore, they curse the prosecutor, the judge, and later, even the parents who gave birth to them.
The person who has become the standard is that his psychological color always stands in the position of judging others. It means that the person who has become the standard is the person who stands in a position of contempt for others. That's right. When you see a person who curses others, he must be a self-centered person. When you see a person judging others, it is the image of a person centered on himself.
Next, the Lord is talking about the prayers of those whom he has set standards. In today's words, the Pharisee stood and prayed by himself, saying, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, nor like this publican. I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of my income.
It shows that if a person becomes self-centered, his life will change even the prayers to God. In other words, when a person becomes self-centered, he becomes a person who distorts religious practices. Therefore, the Lord is saying that a person who is self-centered, no matter how much religious zeal, will rather stand in opposition to God.
In these words, Jesus said that he should not hide his unchanging personality in his religious zeal. The worst thing in the world is unchanging religious zeal. These people are those who oppose God in the name of God. These are people who distort prayer while praying. If I do not change, even prayer will be corrupted.
Then, the person who is the center of himself does not know himself. In general, egocentric people think they know themselves best. Even today, the Pharisees thought they knew themselves well. But they did not know themselves at all. This is God's judgment for those who are self-centered.
So was the church in Laodicea. They said that I am rich and lack nothing. It was a church intoxicated with itself. But the church in Laodicea was a church that could not see itself. He was spiritually blind. The Lord said that the most fatal misfortune of the church in Laodicea is not being able to see Himself. This is the same for everyone. People do not become unhappy because of their lack, but they perish because of their pride.
But tax collectors are different. They confessed that they were sinners. They prayed to have pity on them. These are people who have seen their faults. The true people of God are those who can see their own faults first. When we confess our sins, God washes us. The Lord defines humility and pride this way: Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted A person who speaks of himself as a sinner, a person who says he is not qualified when he speaks about himself, is a person who meets God's standards.