“

You are the only Bible some folks will read.

 

   A sanctimonious Christian can upon occasion be a very nauseating person. We all have met at one time or  another with specimens of sanctimoniousness. Jesus met them and rebuked them for their long and pretentious prayers on public occasions and for their stress on small issues.

  

   Sanctimonious people take great pains to be religious but very little pain to be righteous. They lay great stress upon religious forms and ceremonies but fail to sense the real meaning of such forms and ceremonies. They make a great parade of religious paraphernalia in matters of dress and religious terminology.

  

   A sanctimonious person likes to do things to set him off from the crowd as being more righteous than others. He may carry a huge Bible as he passes along the street, when a small one in his pocket would take care of his reading needs just as well.

 

   Her may wear his hair real long as did the prophets of Bible times. On the other hand, he may shave his head as smooth as an onion. He does all this for the purpose of calling the attention of others to the fact that he is religious.

 

   He may announce to his friends, “I spent the whole night in prayer,” or “I fasted all day yesterday.”  He may greet his friends in public, not with the salutation of “Good morning,” but with “Praise the Lord, brother.”

 

   I saw an extreme case in a large city when a man was walking down the street with a large placard on his back that read “God’s prophet.” I did say it was an extreme case of religiosity.

 

   So in almost every community or congregation there are persons who want to use religion to show off. Some of them are honest but misguided souls who need teaching.  But others are hypocrites who need rebuking. They were here in Jesus’ day. The honest one He loved and sought to guide, but the brazen hypocrites He rebuked, calling them whited sepulchers full of uncleanness.

  

   What I wish to see is a whole lot more faithful Christians quietly bearing good fruit for the Master and lot less rattling around of religious nuts.

       

                          Another sinner saved by grace, Chaplain Al Donovan.

 

  

                           

                                                           

 

   

 

  

 

   .