1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying , 2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. 3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? 4 For God commanded , saying , Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. 5 But ye say , Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; 6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying , 8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear , and understand : 11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. 12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended , after they heard this saying? 13 But he answered and said , Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted , shall be rooted up . 14 Let them alone : they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. 15 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. 16 And Jesus said , Are ye also yet without understanding? 17 Do not ye yet understand , that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
What is in your heart? Do you follow God's principles because you love Him - or are you trying to work your way to heaven? Can anything you or I do bring us to heaven? Not according to these verses. For Jesus says here that it is what is in our hearts that we will show openly. If you treasure evil then evil will come out of your heart and consequently out of your mouth, you if you think evil you will talk evil. Psalms David says thy Law have I hid in my heart, and JEremiah tells us that the new covenant God will write His law in our hearts. When you truly love the Law giver you do not want to ifnd excuses for why you do not follow what the law says, but rather you follow the law because you love the one who gave the law. In the same way that you emulate your parents. You love them and you want to be like them, so if they do X or Y then you will do X or Y. Many 'traditions' within families have been handed down that way. I heard of a story once about a woman who cut in half the roast for sundays, and when asked why she did it, she didn't know, she just knew that her mother had always done the same thing, as had her grandmother however I forget whether it was the grandmother or great grandmother that when she was asked, laughed and said she'd only done it because her roasting tin had been too small. Yet through the generations had come this 'tradition' because mother had done it that way. God is our Father, and we too want to be like Him. In the Torah he has shown what HE is like, the law is nothing short of a transcript of His Character, and so we do not need the 'traditions of the elders' to be able to emulate God and his Character. We only need to spend daily a few minute studying and reading and ejoying his word and His looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith.
CHallenge: (THis one will go for the rest of your life) When you rise up and when you go to sleep spend fifteen to thirty minutes reading atleast some of the Torah and Some of the Gospels, the synergie in them is marvellous beyond compare......
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