Dwell in the Word Mark 7:1-13

Consider these questions as we dwell in Mark 7:1-13:

1. How does Jesus's rebuke of the Pharisees for honoring God with their lips but not their hearts serve as a warning for believers today? In what ways can we sometimes fall into the trap of outward religiosity without true heart transformation?

2. The oral tradition mentioned by Pastor Mark created additional rules and regulations that went beyond the written word of God. How can we guard against adding man-made traditions or interpretations that may lead us away from the true essence of God's commandments?

3. The example of Corban highlights how the Pharisees used a religious practice to neglect their duty of honoring and caring for their parents. How can we ensure that our faith is not used as an excuse to neglect our responsibilities towards our family or others in need? What steps can we take to align our actions with the teachings of Jesus?

Transcript:

Alright, as we start off in chapter seven today, it's very important we don't forget where we've been, what the context we had on Wednesday is. Remember, we had people there who were coming to Jesus, and they were being healed simply by touching Jesus' garment. Now, we're going to see a contrast here. We're going to see a contrast with those people who had simple faith and the Pharisees who were after Jesus. And we see this interesting story here, and it's a harsh statement, because when we read it and we hear the words of Jesus talking about honoring God with our lips, but not with our hearts, we can be convicted because we've all been guilty of that. Well, what was going on here is that the disciples weren't washing their hands as the tradition said they should. What had happened was there was a written word of God, but then there was also a belief by the Pharisees that there was an oral tradition that was passed down on how to interpret these things. And then there were new rules that were added to these. And one of these was all this washing that Mark tells us that the disciples were not doing in the Pharisees thought they should be doing.

So, Jesus is just, he's at his end, I guess you could say here. He tells them what he thinks. He says that Isaiah was speaking of them when he says, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and vain do they worship me, teaching his doctrines the commandments of men. In other words, he's saying, You are more concerned with these traditions of people that have nothing to do with the word of God. And you're teaching this doctrine, and you're forgetting about other stuff. You aren't caring for people the way that you're supposed to care for them. You're more concerned with whether they're washing or not. And so Jesus is going to tell them, Hey, you think you're following all this so clearly. Well, your laws that you've made, the oral tradition that you're working from, it undoes the commands of God. And so, the example that he gives is that, yeah, you're supposed to honor your father and your mother, and that would include taking care of them as they age. Well, there was an oral tradition. They allowed people to say, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban, that is given to God.

And so, they were able to get out of caring for their parents by saying that they were going to give everything to God. And so they were doing this, and that's not honoring your father, your mother, letting them starve or letting them be destitute. That's not following the command of God. This was this oral tradition where you could do this. Well, Jesus says that's not the only thing you do this with. You do this with many other things in your tradition. And so as we think about this, what does this mean for us? As I said, all of us have been guilty of doing this. We have been not of coming up with an oral tradition to misinterpret scripture. That's not what I'm saying. The idea of honoring God with our lips, but having our heart be far from him. And so we see this, and we see that that was the heart of what the Pharisees were doing. They were more concerned with their oral traditions, not with what was actually in God's word. And so they were saying all these things, and it was as if they were trying to make it seem as if they were so pious.

But in all honesty, their hearts were actually a long ways from God. And so, that's not who we want to be, right? We don't want to be those people who only have what comes out of our mouths be about God, and our heart is indifferent to it or even striving against God. And so may we think about this. May these words convict us. May God's spirit be at work in us today, is what comes out of my mouth, giving with what is coming out of my life? Does what I say reflect what's in my heart? And if it's not, we need to do what we're called to do, confess our sins and repent to turn the other way to assess what we're doing and desire to follow God in faithfulfulness. That's what this is a call for us here. The people, the ordinary people, they had faith and they were healed. But here we see the Pharisees having hypocrisy ruled the day, and we don't want to be those people. So may we have simple faith, trusting that God saves us through Christ, that all we need is the Gospel, and we understand our sin, and we repent.

And may our lives then reflect what God has done for us in Christ. May we follow him not only with our words, and may we not only say we're following him, but may our hearts be following after the one who has saved us also.