PARABOLIC PICTURES...PURITY
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
Matthew 15-18 shows us several different pictures of Jesus message to us if we look closely enough to see them. The Scribes and Pharisees continued to put together different amendments that allowed them to get around the laws of Moses. These laws really had nothing to do with obeying the laws that God gave to Moses for the people but they placed these things in the way as a tradition that kept the people from the real truth. They failed miserably as interpreters of the law of God. One of these useless traditions was in eating food with unwashed hands. " Why do the disciples transgress tradition when they eat bread?" The question itself shows how alarmed they were at Jesus breaking tradition. The Elders were not so much alarmed at the law of cleanliness as they were about the external law and ritual . A part of this tradition was in the created belief that a demon known as Shibta would sit on the hands of men when they slept therefore a ceremonial washing of the hands was necessary or else the eating of any food would be contaminated.
Jesus dealt directly with this tradition in a way that was like and arrow through their traditional chest when He said " You have made void the word of God because of your tradition". It was then that Jesus turned to the people and stated this simple parable" It is not what goes into a man that defiles him , but what comes from him that defiles him". This simple statement did two things ...it spoke to the tradition that He was dealing directly with and also to the Elders of the Synagogue who were really the one doing the defiling through their insistence on such traditions.
This entire account paints a parabolic picture for us of what God's direct message is to us today in the church. We have that tendency toward creating traditions that have nothing to do with the real message of God through the development of doctrines and traditions that do nothing to bring us closer to God's true word, yet serve at the same time to separate us from one another. Like the Scribes and Pharisees we too are creating traditions that divide the body of Christ from itself. That is the reason that it is so very important that we get back to the truth in the study of what Jesus actually said, and what the message truly was that God has given us through this new covenant in Christ.
Jesus calls yet to us today to " Hear and understand" Matthew 15:16-20 has Jesus answering a question from Peter that indicate what we do and say that comes from the inside of us is much more important than the thinks we take into us. Many people have had to experience some horrible things, and yet because of those things they have still not turned evil. God can and will take that which we have lived through and make it productive and for His glory if we allow it. It all depends on how we process what is held inside of us. The things we have gone through in this life can be used to help us understand others and offer to them a support that we never had...helping them to find God. We have to give all of our pain and suffering over to the power of God's Spirit within us for that to happen. It is a part of our transformation as a child of God to trust in Him enough to use that pain and that experience in our lives for good. We have that choice...we have the power to overcome evil with good through Christ who dwells within us. This is the purity of love in Christ Jesus, and the only way that we can be truly victorious. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Matthew 15-18 shows us several different pictures of Jesus message to us if we look closely enough to see them. The Scribes and Pharisees continued to put together different amendments that allowed them to get around the laws of Moses. These laws really had nothing to do with obeying the laws that God gave to Moses for the people but they placed these things in the way as a tradition that kept the people from the real truth. They failed miserably as interpreters of the law of God. One of these useless traditions was in eating food with unwashed hands. " Why do the disciples transgress tradition when they eat bread?" The question itself shows how alarmed they were at Jesus breaking tradition. The Elders were not so much alarmed at the law of cleanliness as they were about the external law and ritual . A part of this tradition was in the created belief that a demon known as Shibta would sit on the hands of men when they slept therefore a ceremonial washing of the hands was necessary or else the eating of any food would be contaminated.
Jesus dealt directly with this tradition in a way that was like and arrow through their traditional chest when He said " You have made void the word of God because of your tradition". It was then that Jesus turned to the people and stated this simple parable" It is not what goes into a man that defiles him , but what comes from him that defiles him". This simple statement did two things ...it spoke to the tradition that He was dealing directly with and also to the Elders of the Synagogue who were really the one doing the defiling through their insistence on such traditions.
This entire account paints a parabolic picture for us of what God's direct message is to us today in the church. We have that tendency toward creating traditions that have nothing to do with the real message of God through the development of doctrines and traditions that do nothing to bring us closer to God's true word, yet serve at the same time to separate us from one another. Like the Scribes and Pharisees we too are creating traditions that divide the body of Christ from itself. That is the reason that it is so very important that we get back to the truth in the study of what Jesus actually said, and what the message truly was that God has given us through this new covenant in Christ.
Jesus calls yet to us today to " Hear and understand" Matthew 15:16-20 has Jesus answering a question from Peter that indicate what we do and say that comes from the inside of us is much more important than the thinks we take into us. Many people have had to experience some horrible things, and yet because of those things they have still not turned evil. God can and will take that which we have lived through and make it productive and for His glory if we allow it. It all depends on how we process what is held inside of us. The things we have gone through in this life can be used to help us understand others and offer to them a support that we never had...helping them to find God. We have to give all of our pain and suffering over to the power of God's Spirit within us for that to happen. It is a part of our transformation as a child of God to trust in Him enough to use that pain and that experience in our lives for good. We have that choice...we have the power to overcome evil with good through Christ who dwells within us. This is the purity of love in Christ Jesus, and the only way that we can be truly victorious. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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