Daily Devotional Friday | May 1, 2026
Happy Friday! It’s time for your daily devotional. The scribes and Pharisees must’ve been livid as Jesus continued calling out their many sins in Matthew 23. Their mischief was done in secret, but Jesus brought it to light. He revealed what they tried to keep covered. In today’s daily devotional, Jesus loves you, but He loves us too much to let you stay in sin.
The Father’s Love
Jesus’ appearance on earth was a gift of the Father’s love, for John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,” and Revelation 1:5 calls Jesus the One who loved us and “washed us from our sins with His own blood.” The price Jesus paid for your salvation was too high for you to remain lost. In your daily devotional, adhering to the word of God is vital; it shouldn’t be approached with a hypocritical attitude but in sincerity.
Woe Unto You
In verse 15, Jesus pronounces His third woe upon the religious leaders with, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” The word proselyte means “stranger” in its original language. It referred to converts to Judaism. The scribes and Pharisees’ teachings were to bring people into a knowledge of God to live righteously.
However, the scribes and Pharisees weren’t interested in leading people to God’s righteousness, but in manipulating them into advancing their own evil causes and interests. Desiring to be the center of power, attention, and influence, they cunningly sought to steer proselytes’ loyalty to themselves. Instead of molding them into children of God, they made them children of Satan, like themselves. In this daily devotional, teachers of the word must live by precept and example.
Making Evil Proselytes
Throughout Acts, Paul met fierce opposition from Hellenistic Jews, who were mainly proselytes. In 13:45, when they saw Paul preaching to multitudes, “they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.”
Paul, once a disciple of the Pharisees, namely Gamaliel, his teacher, describes his former attitude against Christians, shaped by them in 26:11: “And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.”
Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for not winning souls to God, but seeking to convert their own followers. In your daily devotional, communing with God and studying His word helps you recognize those who don’t put God at the forefront of their lives.
Twice as Evil
Not only were the scribes and Pharisees producing evil proselytes, but they were making them twice as evil as themselves. Evil breeds even more corruption as it spreads like wildfire. The kings of Israel, who had no righteous king among them, kept getting worse after each generation.
In Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus taught that when an evil spirit leaves a man, he returns after finding no rest in dry places. Seeing no signs of spiritual advancement, he reenters with seven spirits even more wicked. That man is then worse than before.
Jesus Exposes the Truth for You
In Friday’s daily devotional, Jesus exposes the religious elite who sought out converts to ensure their false beliefs became even more widespread. In today’s daily devotional, Jesus stands for truth, not unrighteousness. Reject evil influences that exalt man rather than God. Jesus loves you too much to see you misled.
