Journal Day 9

October 10 2006 - Day 9

Mark 6:53-56; 7:1-13

Passage: This passage is the beginning of a dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes. The dispute is over Jesus’ disciples. According to this passage the Pharisees and scribes had a tradition of washing hands in a certain way that they believed cleansed them and thus honored God. Jesus very sharply rebukes the Pharisees and scribes for considering the traditions of man to be the commandments of God. Quote, “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; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

Application: I find several applications in this text. One I will save for tomorrow. For today I want to focus on my proneness to being like the Pharisees. It is so easy for me to equate my acceptance to God based on the things I am doing. It is very easy to focus on the outward actions like church attendance, bible reading, and seminary while neglecting the inward “heart” life. The Pharisees had much outward religion and no inward relationship. Their outward actions were but a cover-up of the reality of their wicked hearts. The Bible is clear that the only way to be accepted by God is for a person to have faith in Jesus Christ as the God-Man who received your wrath on the cross and who rose from the dead three days later. Not only did they vainly go through the motions of religion, but to make matters worse, the religion they were following was their own man-made religion. They taught and obeyed the “commandments of men.” I need to be careful not to hold to tightly to the things in church life that are only traditions. Traditions are good but not when they become an authority with or over the Bible. This will become very important for me if I am a missionary. I must only seek to deliver the message contained in the Bible and not the traditions of men.