Friday, August 28, 2009

Daily - 8/28/09

Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their mealswith unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.

So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the eldersbut instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded,“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,“Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;but the things that come out from within are what defile.

“From within people, from their hearts,come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,adultery, greed, malice, deceit,licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.All these evils come from within and they defile.”

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We've covered this ground some recently so I'll just add a brief comment.

I have a wise friend who gave me a great functional definition of morality -- we know our own moral compass by how we behave when nobody is looking.

Nothing that enters from the outside can defile. We are only defiled by what comes from inside us. As individuals, we can tell exactly where we stand with God on pride, humility, lustfullness, unchastity, arrogance, folly ... whatever ... by looking at how we think and behave when nobody is looking.

I'll tell you how that works out for me personally. If I'm not abiding in Christ, I don't like what I see when I look in that mirror. But when I am, I see things I didn't think I was capable of being.

Man is fallen, certainly. But we CAN be cleaned. We just need to turn it over to Christ.