Matthew 23:5<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The New Living Translation puts this verse very nicely: \u201cEverything they do is for a show. On their arms, they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra-long tassels.\u201d Everything they do is for a show. Imagine. That is vanity. The vain man wants the commendation and applause of others so much that he always wants to be seen by men. That\u2019s why even their dress code must be significantly different to stand out so that they can be noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flee the vice of vanity. It\u2019s an inward disease that can only be purged by the fire of the Holy Spirit through the crucifying work of the cross. Dead men don\u2019t boast, and there\u2019s no showmanship for the dead. Unless we truly die on the cross, there is no hope of overcoming this vice; for all of humanity is naturally vain. We must learn to die to the ugly desire to be recognized and applauded at all times. We must develop the inward disciple of quietness and simplicity; and through this, we secretly choose the recognition of God above the applause of men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor me, Lord, I choose to follow the narrow way of simple living. Crush in me any resemblance of vanity and show me clearly where the vice of vanity is beginning to find a footing in my spirit. In Jesus name. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 23:5 \u201cBut all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.\u201d The New Living Translation puts this verse very nicely: \u201cEverything they do is for a show. On their arms, they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Matthew.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4349,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions\/4349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}