June 21 : He made a whip out of cords

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!”   (John 2:13-16 — New King James Version)

Most people don't understand this passage of the Bible. They always think of Jesus as gentle and kind, but never as one who exercised authority as the Son of God. These businessmen in God’s temple were polluting that place and taking advantage of sincere people who had come to worship God. They were using religion to enrich themselves and oppress the people, and this made Jesus furious. He drove these dishonest, hypocritical men out of the temple with a whip made of rope.

We never read about the Lord Jesus treating prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, or lepers harshly, driving them away, or whipping them. Other people despised them, but Jesus saw through their sin and concentrated on what they could become. But here Jesus is rough with people who were using the temple and God for their own purposes. The one group of people that made Jesus angry was hypocrites — people who had a veneer of holiness but were full of themselves and avoided any type of sacrifice for God. Do you feel ashamed of things you’ve done in the past, have you made a lot of mistakes, and wasted opportunities? As long as you’re sincere today and making an effort to change, God accepts and forgives you. What He cannot bear is people who are insincere.

But today, you are God’s temple. The temple is not a building anymore. It’s your heart, your body. When you allow things into your life like grudges, addictions, lies, sexual immorality, and greed, you are polluting what is supposed to be His temple. — Be sincere about your weaknesses and failings and allow God to be a part of cleaning you up. When you do you are preparing yourself to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.