Jesus warns the religious people of his day about preaching the wrong message.
Matthew 23:15 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
The scribes and Pharisees that Jesus was talking to were dedicated, hardworking evangelists. But what were they evangelizing? What was their message? Pharisee-ism was a message of rule following - not Christ following. And those who substitute a list of rules for a relationship with Christ, well, Jesus calls them children of hell. And he says their converts are even more so.
Again, this message applies as much to those claiming to be the church today as it did to the religious people then. What rules do we insist must be followed before we can share Jesus' message? Do we preach a list of rules (or even a list of good works) instead of Jesus' message?
Do we ignore Jesus' teaching that preaching "rule following" instead of "Christ following" creates children of hell?
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