I am one who likes my coffee. It doesn’t matter the time of day. It doesn’t matter what the weather is like. I’m always up for a good cup of coffee.

A couple of years ago, our family invested in a Keurig coffee maker. To say that I was excited would be an understatement. A fresh cup of Joe at any time of the day sounds good to me. We tried all kinds of different types of coffee with this wonderful machine. There would be times when we had to descale it, and we would do so.

The other day, my wife did something that she will frequently do… she shared a video of something that had intrigued her. This video would ruin my day. It was a video that someone had put up about what is on the inside of the wonderful coffee machine that had brought me such joy. I will spare the details as you can (sadly) look up on YouTube many videos that share what we found.

What was most troubling about the videos that I saw was that though a person may go through the normal cleaning routines of the machine, there were so many parts inside that didn’t get much attention but still held the capacity to cause great damage.  The tank in the middle holding water with all kinds of “floaties” and the limitless tubing that was anything but clean.  It was enough to set the precious machine to the side and move to a machine that is more straight-forward and able to clean better.

This instance has reminded me of the importance of checking the inside of things.  There is an instance one time of Jesus sharing this truth with some religious leaders of His day.  In Matthew 23, Jesus warns the religious leaders to make sure that the inside is as clean as the outside.

These religious leaders were doing like many do today: focus on having a good appearance.  It is no secret that we all have our faults and shortcomings.  It is work to make sure that things look good on the outside.  Many people spend a great deal of time and even money making sure that what everyone else can see on the surface is the best it can possibly be.  We want others to think that we have things together and that life is fine and dandy.

But how much time is spent on dealing with the things that not many (if any) can see?  Jesus told the people He was talking to in Matthew 23,

“First clean the sinside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.”  (Matthew 23:26 CSB)

We can spend vast amounts of time and money trying to make the outside seem so clean and correct.  I’m not saying that is necessarily wrong.  If we do not pay the same attention to what is on the inside (our hearts), then all this work on the outside is really pointless.  Without proper dealings with the inside, we can try with everything at our disposal to make the outside clean, but it just will not happen… it will never be good enough… we will continue to find things wrong.  The reason for this is because there is a direct link between what is inside and what is outside.

Just like our precious Keurig was clean and looking almost brand new on the outside, the junk of what was inside was still affecting everything that came from it.  Aren’t our lives the same way?  What would happen if we took as much care with what is on the inside of us that we did with our outsides?  Jesus shows us that the outside cannot become truly clean until the inside is dealt with first.  Something to think about… but more importantly, do something about.