And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation" (Luke 20:45–47).
A recurrent theme of the gospel is that God cares about the inner person and wants our affections to be rightly ordered. That is, to receive Jesus’ message is to gladly reorient our loves and values according to God’s kingdom. Jesus’ brief warning here about the religious scribes of his day reemphasizes this point. Here he addresses a crucial heart condition that will result in condemnation: performance for the sake of the praise of others.
While it is entirely natural to like positive attention, and while we should give honor where honor is due, there is a disastrous problem when love for these things supplants love for God and neighbor. We must “beware” of this heart habit of the scribes (v. 46) and take care that we don’t imitate their ways. When we find ourselves tempted to live for the praise of others we must repent, remembering that this is the opposite of the gospel message of humility.
In the gospel, God has given us full and free approval in Christ. We are accepted, reconciled, justified (Rom. 5:1; 2 Cor. 5:18; Gal. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:4). We no longer need to seek the approval of people, because we are approved by God—the only approval that matters, and the only approval that satisfies.
Adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible
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