5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
In Mark 7: 5-9, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees regarding the way his disciples are behaving. Apparently the disciples are not living according to the tradition of the elders, and are eating with hands that have not been washed. By doing this they were violating a tradition that the Pharisees forced upon people. Jesus is reminded of the words of Isaiah that he applies to the Pharisees, and then he proceeds to explain in further detail how they were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah.
The key issue I see in this passage is how the heart is connected to the Pharisees problem. What's the Pharisees problem? They are making their tradition greater than or on equal par with the Scriptures. Thus giving them an excuse to break God's commandments. How is the heart connected to this? In verse 6-7, Jesus quotes Isaiah and applies it to them, in that they are guilty of giving God lip service and not obeying God from the heart. They knew Isaiah said these words but never applied it to themselves.
I need to be careful that when I read God's Word I first let it reach me. I need to ask the Holy Spirit to shine light on the sin of my heart. I need to ask myself, am I guilty of hearing God's Word and applying it to someone else? Am I reading it and not allowing it to change me? I need to ask myself, when was the last time I was challenged to repent or confess sin as I read God's word?
Did the Pharisees know they were doing this? I don't know for sure but Jesus says we speak from our hearts (Mark 7:21). In the heart of each one of us is like a repository of both good or evil. When a person sins, they first conceive the thought of it in their hearts. The slippery slope they concocted to break the commands of God through creating laws, which got them to the place they were at now, started in the heart many moons ago.
I need to be careful that I submit to the Bible as my authority and not allow my opinion or someone else to become my authority. The Bible ceases being my authority as soon as I begin to think something is right or wrong because of my (fill in the blank). I need to filter every thought, idea, and standard through the Scriptures, or they cease being my ultimate authority.
Jesus then takes the issue of eating with dirty hands and basically says that nothing you put in your mouth defiles you, but only what comes out of your heart. Jesus is talking about food because he says it goes into the stomach and is then eliminated through the human bodily functions.
What defiles a person? Jesus says it all begins in the heart. We think, speak and act from the heart. Whatever is in the heart, and whatever the condition of the heart of a person will determine how they behave. If my heart is defiled then what I say, think, and do will eventually show my true colors.
We live with ourselves, meaning we all know that we talk to ourselves and even have conversations, but more than that we are everyday thinking and planning things out, some of us even plot out evil. But it all begins with ourselves. We know what we are doing, it starts with us.
We love ourselves and we know it. But this is not totally bad, because we are commanded to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, so God knows we love ourselves, and that we care and protect ourselves. So while we are living with ourselves and loving ourselves, I think we need to be honest to ourselves, and when we begin to think thoughts, and plan out things that are wrong, and we know they are wrong, we need to stop and love ourselves, by loving our hearts. Look beyond the mirror, and look at your heart, keep it pure by loving it to be pure. Keep it pure by submitting to God's Word. Keep it pure by applying God's word to your life, before you think of someone else who might need it. Finally, keep it pure by preaching the gospel to yourself. This last point has become a catching phrase that us preachers have been using, but I hope it is more than a catchy phrase to you. The gospel is the righteousness of God, and without His righteousness no one will ever be pure in the sight of God. So preach the gospel to yourself by reminding yourself of what the cross has accomplished for you. May God bless you with ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to understand. Until then, thanks for staying in the Loop! Pastor G
