Matthew 23:27, New International Version

“…You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.”

Just because something appears to be clean, doesn't mean it is. A shiny cup could have the appearance of being clean, but if the inside is not cleaned out from what was in it, it isn't clean at all. How crazy would it be to take a dingy cup and wash only the outside, then drink from the dirty inside? People are the same way. They can appear to be "clean"---well-dressed, well-spoken, volunteering at church— but if on the inside they have bitterness, unforgiveness, or hidden sin, they aren't clean at all.

We live in a world where the outside matters more than the inside. More and more in our day and age, Hollywood, the movies and the media have made such an impact on our lives, appearance is becoming everything. Many young people are more and more self-conscious of their appearance and how they look to a point where some of them become sick and put their health in danger. But the Lord tells us He does not look at the appearance of a person, but He looks at the heart. The heart of a person matters more to God than how they look on the outside. When this life is over and we stand before the judgment seat of God, He is not going to judge us on how well we groomed ourselves on the outside and how well people thought of us. He is going to look at the inside of our hearts and see if we walked the way He desired for us to walk. Our heart is everything to God.

The idea of appearing clean on the outside while harboring sin within is a recurring theme in the Bible, particularly in the teachings of Jesus to the Pharisees. Jesus criticized them for their meticulous focus on external rituals and appearance, while neglecting the inner state of their hearts, which were filled with greed, hypocrisy, and iniquity. This concept emphasizes the importance of inner transformation and purity of heart over outward compliance with religious rules. 

Matthew 23:27 (NIV) says, “…You hypocrites! You’re like whitewashed tombs”  (in other words, you are like a burial vault, a mausoleum, or grave), “ which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside…” (What do you find on the inside of a tomb? Jesus said they “are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean”.

In other words, He said it was all a show; their faith was a performance, it was a religious act, but it wasn’t born out of a relationship with God. And so, one characteristic of being a “whitewashed tomb” was to be more concerned about the outward appearance than with the true character on the inside. Just as long as they looked "good" on the outside it didn't matter what was on the inside. They can fool people with their words and acts of service. But it is that hypocrisy that angers Jesus so much, calling them “whitewashed tombs” because they didn’t practice what they preached (Isaiah 29:13).

So, before we put too much weight on Hollywood, the media, the lifestyle magazines we subscribe to, or how we all look to one another, we need to first examine our hearts and see if there is anything wicked in them, or anything that God might not be pleased about. Then ask Him to take these things away and cleanse our hearts and purify them.

True cleanliness and righteousness must begin with the heart and inner life!