Dead Men’s Bones
"Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of th3e cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Matthew 23:25-28
Atmosphere alone guarantees neither culture nor character. True and lasting change has always come from the inside out, not from the outside in. The greatest men and women of the ages have long since been revered, not for their better equipment, but for that which came from within them. Beethoven was not Beethoven because of this better piano.
Fancy buildings don’t assure the presence of faithful believers. We may invest millions of dollars in steeples, signs, and song books; in padded pews, temperature-controlled auditoriums, and elaborate sound systems – yet those disciples of long ago, huddled together in stench-filled catacombs, may have outdone us in their sincerity and depth of worship.
Churches today have the inside track on atmosphere; in fact, many of us have made ourselves so comfortable we have to fight to stay awake.
Christ likened the Pharisees to "whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and full of all uncleanness." (Matthew 23:27.) The church of Laodicea, which boasted of being "rich, and increased with goods, and (having) need of nothing." Was actually, "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Revelation 3:17.)
The Laodiceans, the Pharisees, and us? I hope not.