To those puffed up with their own virtue, who cast judgment like confetti, Jesus laid it bare:

Two men walked into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee—self-satisfied, polished, proud. The other? A tax collector—loathed, dirty with guilt.

The Pharisee stood tall, chest out, praying to himself: “God, thank you I’m not like the scum. Thieves. Cheats. Adulterers. Or this pathetic tax collector. I fast twice a week. I tithe like clockwork. I’m good.”

But the tax collector? He kept his distance. Wouldn’t even lift his head. Fists to chest, heart split open, he cried: “God, have mercy on me—a sinner.”

And Jesus said: It was that man—the one broken in truth, not puffed in performance—who went home right with God.

Because here’s the law of the Spirit:

The self-exalted will be humbled.

The humble will be lifted.