Luke 11:35-47

³⁵Therefore, you(pl) do not need to see more miracles. You need to think carefully about what I have already told you, so that the things that you have heard from others do not cause you to remain in spiritual darkness MET.

³⁶If you live completely according to God's truth, you will be able to know everything that God wants you to know. It will be like being in a room with a lamp shining brightly, enabling you to see everything clearly.”

³⁷While Jesus finished saying those things, a Pharisee invited him to eat a meal with him. So Jesus went to his house and ate with him.

³⁸The Pharisee was surprised when he saw that Jesus did not follow the Pharisees' ritual by washing his hands before eating. The Pharisees washed their hands in a certain way to be cleansed from anything that might have contaminated them. They were afraid that God might reject them if they had touched something unacceptable to God.

³⁹The Lord Jesus said to Him, “You Pharisees are concerned about things that are outside your bodies, not with what is in your ◄ inner beings/hearts► MET. You wash the outside of cups and dishes before you eat because you think that doing that will make you acceptable to God, but within yourselves you are very greedy and wicked.

⁴⁰You foolish people! God is concerned about things that are outside our bodies, but ◄he is certainly also concerned about our inner beings!/isn't he also concerned about our hearts?► RHQ

⁴¹Give money to those who are poor. Give according to what you know within your ◄inner beings /hearts ► that you should give. Then you will be surprised to realize that you will be acceptable to God without having to perform all those rituals about washing.

⁴²But there will be terrible punishment for you Pharisees! You give to God a tenth of all you produce, even the various herbs that you grow, but you do not remember that you must act justly toward others and love God! It is good to give a tenth of your income to God, but you ought to do these other things also!

⁴³There will be terrible punishment for you Pharisees, because you like to sit in the best seats in our worship places so that people will think highly of you, and you like people to greet you respectfully in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴There will be terrible punishment for you, because you are like ground where there is no marker to indicate that there is a grave underneath. People walk there, but they cannot see what is rotten down below MET! Similarly, people who see you do not realize how polluted you are within yourselves.”

⁴⁵One of those who taught the Jewish laws replied, “Teacher, by saying this you (sg) are criticizing us also!”

⁴⁶Jesus said, “It will be terrible also for you who teach the Jewish laws! You require people to obey many rules that are difficult to obey MET. That is like making them carry heavy burdens on their backs. But you yourselves do not obey the laws that you require others to obey. (OR, you do not do anything to help others to obey the laws.)

⁴⁷There will be terrible punishment for you! You decorate the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed, but you do not live according to what the prophets taught.