Cleaning the inside
It had been one of those very busy days. I was heading for my job out of town early the next morning and was making some spaghetti for my hubby to have available while I was gone. I was distracted from that project as I worked on others when suddenly I noticed smoke coming from the burner below the pot of nearly boiling noodles. There were now actual flames below the pot resulting in scorching the outside and base of the pot. Apparently, unnoticed by me, when my husband and son were making granola earlier in the week-end, some of the sticky granola had spilled out of the pan and into the burner well and was now on fire! The situation was quickly brought under control, however, and I finished the spaghetti project without further incident.
Later, as I washed the pot, I was particularly concerned to get all the soot off the exterior. As I was rinsing the pot, I realized I had been so concerned about the pot’s outside that I had totally neglected to wash the inside where noodles had left starchy residue! A spiritual application and lesson popped immediately into my head!
Jesus had told a story about this very same kind of thing-of being concerned about the outside of a cup but paying little attention to the inside of a cup! He was accusing the Pharisees of being hypocrites in their spiritual lives. They made a great show of doing what they deemed as “godly” things outwardly (the outside of the cup) so that people could see how holy and good they were when, in actuality, their inward life-their thoughts, their motives, their heart condition (the inside of the cup)-was full of wickedness!
How often do I find myself acting like the Pharisees, concentrating on looking good on the outside-doing those “religious” things that make me appear righteous to those watching- while my inner heart is filled with sinful thoughts and motives! I am willing to bet you have had this experience too! Jesus had instructions for the Pharisees and they are just as true for me and for you today. He said to first clean the inside of the cup; make sure our heart is right and good and pure before the LORD and then the outside will be taken care of. He could say that because He knew out of the heart come things that defile, out of the heart come the issues of life. He knew that right living on the outside starts from the inside.
Who would have thought such reminders would come from a scorched spaghetti pot?
