Measuring Stick

While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon, the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard, and she broke the vial and poured it over His head.  But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted?  For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.”  And they were scolding her.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her?  She has done a good deed to Me.  For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me.  She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.”

Mark 14:3-8

An important lesson here is that we should not be so quick to judge the actions of people who are doing what they believe God is leading them to do. Rather than saying something negative, we should take a minute and consider how the actions measure up to what the Bible teaches. 

When we change our measuring stick from our gut instincts to the Word of God, things look different.