{"id":8202,"date":"2018-07-02T00:07:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T00:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8202"},"modified":"2019-02-03T03:48:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T03:48:14","slug":"concerning-mob-mentality-what-would-jesus-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8202","title":{"rendered":"Concerning mob mentality: What would Jesus do?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u2026the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects,<\/em><em> plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say.<\/em> Luke 11, last two verses<\/p>\n<p>Take note of three phrases in the final two verses of Luke 11:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>began to be very hostile<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>plotting against him<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>to catch Him in something He might say<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Under these circumstances\u2026<\/em>[of targeted hostility and ill-intent]<em> He began saying to His disciples first of all, <\/em><em>\u201cBeware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.<\/em> Luke 12:1<\/p>\n<p>Under the circumstances of blatant resentment and plots of violence against Him, what did Jesus do? Did He acquiesce with the demands of the mob\u2014did He think perhaps He\u2019d been too harsh, and in His loving way, wonder if they had a point? NO. He boldly exposed the root of this brazen hostility: \u00a0Bona fide, Grade A hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>The Lord uncovered a principle here: Targeting an individual with hostility propelled by an intent to destroy his reputation or life reveals more about the character of the \u201ctargeter\u201d than it does the one being targeted\u2014they are a bald-faced hypocrite.<\/p>\n<p>The Oxford Dictionary defines hypocrisy this way: \u201cthe practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one&#8217;s own behavior does not conform.\u201d It\u2019s the old speck in the eye caution\u2014if you seek to remove (or expose!) a speck in someone else\u2019s eye, get the log out of your own, first. (See Matthew 7:3-5.)<\/p>\n<p>Do you passionately seek to expose someone else as flawed or evil, worthless or unfit? Then first take a checkup from the neck up yourself! When you engage in undermining the reputation of someone\u2014no matter <em>how<\/em> righteous you feel about it or <em>how<\/em> much satisfaction you derive from it\u2014you are placing yourself in a precarious position before God.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The leaven of hypocrisy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jesus likened hypocrisy to leaven.<\/p>\n<p>Many of us consume a little leaven\u2014or yeast\u2014every day in baked goods. That bit of yeast added to recipes gives the whole loaf, cake, or batch of cookies a fluffy, chewable quality. Most dictionaries define leaven\u2014in addition to its use as a fermenting, rising agent in bread\u2014as a pervasive, permeating influence of change for the<em> better<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Yet when Jesus stated, \u201c<em>Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees<\/em>\u201d, He was highlighting the subtle, <em>negative<\/em> influence of hypocrisy\u2014the outward display of a moral high ground which masks raw ambition and hatred toward anyone who dares to stand between them and their secretly held lust for power. Jesus knew that mingling and mixing with such power-driven hypocrites would infect the culture with unthinking, blind corruption\u2026and the whole lump of connected humanity would \u201cblow up\u201d with hypocrisy, hostility, and attempts to destroy anyone who remained \u201cunfermented\u201d by the prevailing trend.<\/p>\n<p><em>What <strong>would<\/strong> Jesus do?<\/em> Quite simply, expose hypocrisy. He didn\u2019t seek to destroy hypocrites; He didn\u2019t shout over them or call for their humiliation or demise; He simply revealed Truth concerning them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cover ups <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.<\/em><em> Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. <\/em>Luke 12:2-3<\/p>\n<p>Jesus recognized that these religious\/political leaders wanted nothing other than to destroy Him, His message, and His influence on the world. Despite all of that, He maintained His peace; a higher principle was at play and He knew it:<\/p>\n<p>All cover ups would be revealed. Hidden things would be made known. Conversations in dark, private meetings would become public knowledge. Whispered secret agendas would soon be broadcast on the airwaves far and wide.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What would Jesus do? What should <em>you<\/em> do?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First, beware the leaven of hypocrites. Is something trending that grabs the minds, emotions, and passions of the many, transforming cultural thought into a lump of rage, hostility, and indignation? <em>Beware of it<\/em>. At its root is hypocrisy\u2014the mask of moral superiority covering someone\u2019s unseen lust for power, manipulating those with good intentions to destroy a manufactured enemy&#8230;and in Jesus\u2019 day, that manufactured enemy was <em>Him<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly\u2014and this is my passion\u2014use the <em>mind<\/em> God gave you. Question mass movements and popular trends, especially the ones that seek to destroy others. Ask yourself, \u201cWhere did this start? Who ultimately benefits? What is the end game?\u201d God never demanded that you check your brain at the door of the church, school, university, or evening news. Invite Him to reveal the agendas behind societal thrusts; compare trending ideologies to the Word of God. If it doesn\u2019t<em> feel <\/em>right, you <em>have<\/em> the right to question it and ask God about it.<\/p>\n<p>And third, <em>pray<\/em>. You may not discern who or what is behind everything going on in prevailing movements, but God certainly does. Therefore, if it feels weird to you, take Jesus\u2019 lead: Pray for cover ups to be exposed; ask that hidden intents will be made known; request God to cause private meetings in which participants plot someone\u2019s ruin to be uncovered and become public knowledge; and pray that all whispered agendas will be exposed and broadcast on every available media.<\/p>\n<p>Again, you have the right to question. You have the right to take an unpopular stance. You have the right to use critical thinking concerning every movement and ideology that comes along. And you have the right to go <em>God\u2019s way<\/em> even if everyone else throws in with the \u201clovely\u201d fa\u00e7ade and hidden agendas of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>Beware the leaven of hypocrisy!<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n<p><em>But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.<\/em> 2 Timothy 3:1<\/p>\n<p><em>But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.<\/em> 2 Timothy 3:13<\/p>\n<p><em>But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all<\/em>\u2026 2 Timothy 3:9a<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #191e23; cursor: text; font-family: 'Noto Serif'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\">\u00a9 2018, Dorothy Frick<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say. Luke 11, last two verses Take note of three phrases in the final two verses of Luke 11: began to be very hostile plotting against him [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bk-of-luke","category-prayerperspective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8202"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8280,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8202\/revisions\/8280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}