Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. [Matthew 23:25-26]

"Woe...for ye make clean"

God is a lover of purity and cleanliness. He desires cleanliness because He is a holy God, hence, He demands it. The Lord will not demand what you do not have the ability to do. So if God demands something from you, it is because He has endowed you with the power to produce it.
Jesus pronounced all these woes upon the religious leaders of His days, because He had actually released unto them all that was needed to make them what God wanted them to be, but they failed to live up to that endowment.
God is not just a tyrant Master like Pharaoh, who demands from his subjects what definitely they lacked ability to produce.

From this passage, it is clear that the Pharisees actually had the wherewithal and capability to make something clean, because God had given it to them.
They were endowed by God with the know how to make clean. They had the knowledge, the grace, the ability to make clean, but they directed that gift in the opposite direction.
They concentrated on the outside rather than the inner beauty that God sought for. They cornered the grace of God, and used it to pursue selfish gains, instead of honouring God with it. They pleased men instead of God, and focused on the things men will see and appreciate (the outward things) rather than the critical things that God demanded (the inward).

"...the outside... "

The first place of contact actually is "the outside". The first point of connection with anything is its visible outside. The way the outside of an item is, largely determines its receptivity and acceptance. The colour, outlook and display determine whether an item will be presentable, acceptable or not.

From the human perspective, to clean up the outside is not bad because whatever is not cleaned up very well will be rejected, no matter how priceless such item is. An item will be discarded, even though the inner content is so clean and beautiful, if its point of contact with the eyes (its outside) is not presentable. Sales personnel in any organization often take issues like “branding", "labeling" and "packaging" very seriously because the yardstick of judgment by man for beauty, quality and acceptability is majorly restricted to the outside presentation.

BUT, in the kingdom of God, things are very different. The yardstick of judgment has NOTHING to do with the outside. In the spiritual, the point of contact is not the outside, it is the inside, it is the within. God does not look on the outside, but on the inside. Even Jesus reiterated this in verse 26, that the point of concentration is the inside.

"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” [Matthew 23:26]

"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” [1Samuel 16:7]

If the inside is dealt with, automatically without further ado or additions, the outside WILL be clean also. I do not need to bother about my outside (that is what Jesus said). Once I am concentrating all my energy on the inside, it will definitely rub off on the outside. The picture of the inside will naturally show on the outside. The aroma of the inner life will ooze out, and the fragrance thereof will fill the whole outside.

If this is so, why then do men (even Christians) put so much concentration on the outside? The slogan "the way you present yourself is the way you will be accepted" OR "the way you dress is the way you will be addressed" does this hold any weight as far as Christianity is concerned? By the words of Jesus, the inner dressing of the Christian is the real dressing which is displayed for men to see, not the dressing of physical clothes that anybody can easily be hypocritical about.

Today in many circles, emphasis has totally shifted from the INSIDE to the OUTSIDE. "Spirituality" now looks like fanaticism, while "Religion" the outward show of make believe, has replaced real spirituality. For those who serve at the altar, the kind of dress you wear is now more important than how dressed you are inwardly. Nobody cares to ask how much time you spent with the Lord in the closet to prepare your heart. Nobody cares how burdened you are for souls How much tears you shed, what revelations you got from the Lord on a spiritual assignment given you. Rather, men are quick to spot the incompleteness in your physical attire, the absence of a blazer or a tie, never minding if your soul was fully dressed for the divine task.
Emphasis has shifted to looking crisp, smart, neat and official, and no more on the dressing of the hidden man of the heart. Appearance before the congregation is a more potent yardstick of judging the Ministers preparedness, rather than how spiritually ready he is to deliver the undiluted gospel.

When a spiritual man meets you, he is looking to size you up spiritually. He may not first see the things you are putting on. He does not see the hypocritical regalia you put on to disguise your spiritual state, rather, he reads your spirit. He is not first interested in your clothing (either the clothing of physical wears, or the clothing of acted humility and godly decorum). He is watching the air around you. He wants to see if it is pride that clothes you. He wants to check if you are going upstage to display empty talents, OR you are yielded and broken for the Spirit to make use of. But when another meets you, and his first confrontation is “your dress is not complete, where is your suit?, how about your tie and shoe to match...?” his emphases are all about physical things that have no effect on any soul, then such a man is dwelling on the outside, I am afraid, such is a Pharisee in the making. How many are on the pulpit today making noise, reading mere letters that kill, because their inner man is naked, they are not clothed?

Someone may say, “oh! It was the dressing of that brother that brought me under conviction”. BUT, dressing does not convict any man. Anything physical does not bring anybody under conviction. It takes ONLY God to do Gods work. The physical CANNOT achieve a spiritual result. If it was the dressing of the man that condemned you, God only used it at that time to draw your attention. He could use anything to attract a soul unto Himself. He only used cloth to spark your interest and bring you under conviction, so that His (Gods) voice could be heard while your attention has been captured. The burning bush was only a divine instrument to draw Moses unto the VOICE of The Lord. It was not the bush that convicted him, it was the VOICE. Emphasis must not be laid on the physical at any time, or else, we will rob God of His glory, and He will jealously withdraw from working further.

If it was the simplicity of a Pastors clothing that magnetized you to God, thousands of godless men are also dressing simply, why did not they attract you before now? God only revealed His grace that melts men to you. You actually saw something beyond the simple clothing, and that was GRACE, the power of the cross.

Are you the type, though you are neither full of the Spirit nor saturated with God, but you like to fill up the void in you (where God ought to fill), with some natural things in the flesh that look commensurate with anointing, to patch up the void in your spirit? Such is hypocrisy.

Today, Singers in church are judged by the uniformity of their appearance, how conformed each singer is to the clothing uniform standard, how sonorous the voices blend and the meticulous details of the music score sheets. Hours are spent on perfecting the voices and the song mannerisms. Choir practices are filled with making clean the outside of the cup, but who cares about the lives behind the voices!
Are you more concerned today about the appearance the outside of the cup? Local churches are graded, measured based on their numerical strength and/or their financial strength. We sit down discussing modalities on how the church can move forward, but our yardsticks for judgment are all the outside.

"...outside of the cup... "

The cup is a hollow vessel, a concave material that has lots of “inside”. The cup received its name because of its ability to hold as much content as possible without depleting it, and never by its outside beauty. The reality of the cup, the usefulness and purpose of the cup, is not in the appearance, neither is it in its physical beauty. But, it is in its power to hold, contain and retain whatever is poured into it. A cup is not a flower that decorates, though it may be designed with flowery shape to attract and give you some assurance of its quality, yet beauty is not part of its purpose. It is meant to contain and retain. If the content of your cup (your inner man) is full of rottenness, extortion and excesses, whereas you are beautifying the outside for men to see and deceive them of the reality of who you are, you have only become a Pharisee, and without doubt, the woes of Jesus will soon take effect upon you.
When the emphasis has shifted from the inside of the cup (holiness within) to the outside (dressing, skills and presentation), then something is fundamentally wrong. When we are more concerned about the fineness of the cup than the contents, then blindness has set in. Are you more concerned about building your church with cement and decorating it beautifully, rather than building Christs true church, the lives of men, with holiness and grace? Do men make their choices based on the beauty of a material or based on the contents? A clean glass of poison, though attractive is very deadly all the same. Cleaning or beautifying the outside of a jar of venom, does not obliterate the death therein, it only deceives men and pushes them faster to their graves.

Is it not the content of a cup that determines the price with which it will be sold? Two different vessels containing wine are sold at different prices, not because of the type of container, but because of the quality of the contents (wine) each bears. Why are you so concerned about outlook, whereas the weight of your life with God is so light? You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Instead of you to fall down before God to replenish you with His grace and righteousness, you go about carrying empty pomposity and deceiving gullible men like yourself with bogus nothing wrapped up with cosmetics. You are judging by mere clothes and you ascribe that as righteousness? What blindness!!! It is the content that determines the acceptance. The content determines what name the cup will be called, and the price tag. If surprisingly, the outside has become an attraction for you, it is an indication that you are getting blind. Our passion should be about the contents of this cup, not the beauty outside. The desire and emphasis should be about making sure that treasure, grace and quality gets inside us, rather than pleasing men by appearance.

If the emphasis of a cup shifts primarily to the quality of what gets in, then you discover that the outside will not even be available for dirt to get to it.The same meticulousness employed in keeping and guarding the contents of the cup will also keep the outside from contamination. But when we are more concerned about beauty, presentation, oratory, learning how to speak, polishing our appearance, polishing our messages, adding some psychological gimmicks, colouring our speeches, beautifying our buildings... when we attach great importance to our outlook, acceptance, skills and presentation, while we neglect the touch, visitation, power and presence of the Holy Spirit, then God Himself is bound to withdraw, and allow His woes to take effect.

"...the platter... "

How about the platter? The platter is not like cup, primarily to hold and retain, the platter does not store items, but the platter too has its functionalities. A platter is a tray, a flat vessel probably with some bevels at the edges to keep its contents from falling off. The platter is used to carry food, it is used to serve others, and it must be very presentable and clean also. The outside of the platter is almost always hidden away from public views unlike the cup. The inside of the tray is always the point of contact with whoever you want to serve.
When a man begins to concentrate on keeping the outside of the platter/tray clean, it means that such a man has turned the tray upside down. He is concentrating on the behind which cannot hold anything. No matter how clean, neat the outside of the tray is, it is not presentable, to carry food with it.

For the outside of the tray to be visible to anybody at any time, it means that the tray is not carrying anything. It means you have turned the tray upside down. The tray is empty, and all the good contents therein have poured away. The man has become drained, void of grace and anointing without knowing it.

If anybody is seen admiring the back of a tray, it simply means that the tray is empty. Because, if the tray was full and in service, the back will not be visible.

When you see a man concentrating on the outside of a platter, focusing on appearance, concentrating on the outward at the expense of his soul, the man is simply empty. The inner life that should bear the contents of divine treasures, has been overturned upside down, he is empty and has been sifted. All that remains of him is chaff.

"...but within... "

There is a big BUT here... What should be the point of concentration has been diverted, and lesser things have been prioritized above great things. The scale of preference has changed. The most important thing here is "within", but that "within" has been compromised and replaced with lesser things.

"...within are FULL..."

Sometimes when you see a man concentrating so much on the outside, it is because he has got no other options, his within is already full and saturated with other encumbrances, and there is no space inside anymore to work on. When a man is full of all kinds of ideologies, when he has become an end to himself, when he has all the answers to any kind of questions, he has reasons and explanations for his impotence and weakness, then such a man cannot be helped, because if you try to assist him, there is a front he presents, a barrier he presents as if to say, "do not go beyond here, I am full already, there is no space for anything or anyone to operate", and he remains in his barrenness.

Jesus Christ is saying that whatever it is that fills up a man on the inside, and makes him to shift attention to things of the outside, such things, no matter how legitimate, religious and good they may seem, the definition of such things is extortion and excess.

When something is excess, it means it has grown beyond its bounds and must be removed. Jesus wants me to empty self of whatever is excess today, He wants me to get rid of that which is extorting me of the divine things I should have got. Those things are robbing me of deep things that God wants to deposit in me, by simply taking up the space they should fill.

When God comes to deposit treasures and finds a within that is full of whatever, He simply withdraws and leaves me unblessed. Therefore such excesses in me have robbed me, extorted me of divine treasures by simply taking their place.
Extortion or excess may not altogether be bad, sinful or godless. They may be some good desires, ambitions or pursuits, but they are the very thieves that have stolen and taken up the space that God should fill up. They have extorted me, robbed me of the correct treasures of grace, they have become excess and taken up divine space.

Empty me o God today!!!

No matter how clean, neat the outside of the tray is, it is not presentable, you never carry food with it.