Getting Cleaned Up
Do you wash your dishes? Do you wash your hands before eating a meal?
So did the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They wondered why the disciples of Jesus didn’t live according to these traditions, as it appears the disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating… Instead of directly answering their question, Jesus chides them that they have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men, and goes on to say “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” (Mk 7:9)
Do you keep the commands of God?
It hit me… I wash dishes and wash my hands… It’s just what you are “supposed” to do… But do I take as much care to keep the commands of God as I do these “traditions”? After responding to the Pharisees, Jesus turns to the crowd and says that nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him, but rather, it is what comes out that makes him unclean (Mk 7:15 & 19).
Am I more concerned about my physical cleanliness or about having a clean heart? Do I make provisions for and allow "evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly” (Mk 7:21-22)? I can’t look at that list and be guiltless. I have stumbled in some of those ares, and we are reminded in James 2:10 that if we stumble in even just one area of the law/commands of God, we are guilty of breaking all of it.
Now I know that the gospel of Christ is NOT a gospel of condemnation (Rom.8:1), and I don’t think that was the point of Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and surrounding crowd. He was pointing out the hardness and blindness of the Pharisees' hearts. They were concerned about the wrong thing.
What are you concerned about?
Am I more concerned about the “traditions” and ways to do things without FIRST being concerned about where my heart is at? When I stand before the Lord, it won’t be about how clean my dishes were, or how healthy I ate. It will be about what came out of me, out of my heart.
Today, I choose again to refocus on what is really important. Give me a clean heart, O Lord! Teach me your commands, that I may live by them.
**Text of this entry...Mark 7:1-22
So did the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They wondered why the disciples of Jesus didn’t live according to these traditions, as it appears the disciples didn’t wash their hands before eating… Instead of directly answering their question, Jesus chides them that they have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men, and goes on to say “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” (Mk 7:9)
Do you keep the commands of God?
It hit me… I wash dishes and wash my hands… It’s just what you are “supposed” to do… But do I take as much care to keep the commands of God as I do these “traditions”? After responding to the Pharisees, Jesus turns to the crowd and says that nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him, but rather, it is what comes out that makes him unclean (Mk 7:15 & 19).
Am I more concerned about my physical cleanliness or about having a clean heart? Do I make provisions for and allow "evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly” (Mk 7:21-22)? I can’t look at that list and be guiltless. I have stumbled in some of those ares, and we are reminded in James 2:10 that if we stumble in even just one area of the law/commands of God, we are guilty of breaking all of it.
Now I know that the gospel of Christ is NOT a gospel of condemnation (Rom.8:1), and I don’t think that was the point of Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and surrounding crowd. He was pointing out the hardness and blindness of the Pharisees' hearts. They were concerned about the wrong thing.
What are you concerned about?
Am I more concerned about the “traditions” and ways to do things without FIRST being concerned about where my heart is at? When I stand before the Lord, it won’t be about how clean my dishes were, or how healthy I ate. It will be about what came out of me, out of my heart.
Today, I choose again to refocus on what is really important. Give me a clean heart, O Lord! Teach me your commands, that I may live by them.
**Text of this entry...Mark 7:1-22
Comments
Post a Comment
I'd love to hear from you! Let me know how I can pray for you or leave comments about my posts! Thanks for stopping by my blog!