FBC Daily Devotional – April 21, 2021

Well, a good Wednesday to you. Hope your week is going well. You're halfway through it, and then when you get through the day today, aren't you?

We're looking forward to Bible study time tonight, if you can make it Wednesday evening, seven o 'clock for that Bible study.

We have a kids club and a youth meeting at 645 as well. So, we do these things every week, and if you're free,

I hope you can make it out to those times this evening. Well, yesterday we read in the book of Leviticus these different laws about being ritually unclean.

Today's reading in Mark chapter 7, they just reveal the distortion of application and interpretation of those laws.

So, the Pharisees, you know, they had seen or read, you know, this very important thing about being ritually unclean, and so they decided, well, you know, we've got to we've got to really make sure that we don't get dirty, and don't defile ourselves by any kind of ritual uncleanness.

So, they took those Old Testament laws and, well, they came up with things that were like the laws on steroids, if you will, and added all kinds of additional requirements and stipulations and so on and so forth.

And you read of that here in chapter 7. It says, the

Pharisees and all the Jews, they do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way. It's not enough just to wash your hands.

You've got to wash them in a special way. That's a tradition of the elders, verse 3 says. And so, when they come in from the marketplace, they don't eat unless they wash.

And you might say, well, that's good hygiene. You know, we're told to do that all the time these days of COVID and so forth.

You know, wash your hands, sing the alphabet twice and all that kind of thing. Yeah, you know, it's one thing to say, that's a good hygienic principle.

It's another thing to say, if you don't, you're going to get fined, you know. Well, the Pharisees were essentially saying that.

If you don't wash your hands when you come in from the marketplace, you know, God's going to fine you. You're going to be spiritually, ritually defiled.

So, they don't wash when they come in from the marketplace, or they don't eat when they come in from the marketplace, unless they wash.

And the thinking was that, not that they were going to pick up real dirt and germs, it really wasn't on their radar screen.

What they were concerned about was rubbing shoulders with, coming in contact with somebody who was ritually unclean, someone else who was a sinner, and their sinner dirt would run off, rub off on them.

So, they had all kinds of different rituals like this that they practiced that went far beyond that Old Testament law.

Verse four goes on to say, they have many other things that they've received and hold, such as the washing of cups, and pitchers, and copper vessels, even couches.

So, the Pharisees came to Jesus' disciples and said, hey, how come your disciples don't wash their hands when they come in from, you know, come in from outside?

And Jesus deals with this, and he points out that they have they have erred, they have violated the law by elevating human tradition above the law.

And he says, you honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

So, Jesus is going to double down on them, because they were elevating their human traditions to the point that those traditions were then used to evaluate another person's piety, another person's spirituality, whether or not they were acceptable to God based on their keeping of those traditions.

So, Jesus upends all those traditions, frankly. He upends those traditions as well as their judgmentalism, and he says it's not what you take into your mouth when you eat your food that is going to defile you spiritually.

It's what comes out of you, out of your heart, that's what defiles you.

And he says this later in chapter 7, when he gives a parable, first of all, he says there's nothing that enters a man from outside that can defile him, but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile him.

And his disciples pulled him aside later and said, what does this mean? We don't get this.

What are you after here? And Jesus said, listen, do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him?

Because it does not enter his heart, but into his stomach and is eliminated.

But, he goes on to say, what comes out of a man, that defiles him, that defiles a man.

For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, and foolishness.

All these things come from within and defile a man. So, Jesus nails the real problem of defilement, it's the heart.

And what comes out of the heart is what spiritually defiles an individual.

It really makes you dirty. It reveals a dirty heart. Just by the way, let me point out a little translation difference, if you will.

And when Jesus is saying that, that what goes into you doesn't defile you, he says, it doesn't enter into your heart, but into your stomach and is eliminated.

And the King James and New King James then says, thus purifying all foods. So, the way that's translated, it reads like the digestive process and discharging of the waste is what purifies all the foods.

One way to translate it, but another way to translate it, and probably better, is the way the

ESV translates it, which is after he says, it does not enter his heart, but his stomach and is eliminated, the

ESV then says, thus he declared all foods clean. And that makes better sense in the general context here.

So, Jesus was saying, the foods are clean. It's not the food that's unclean that's going to defile you. It's what comes out of your heart, and the practice that is a revelation of what's in your heart, that's what defiles you.

So, yes, let's be concerned about purity. Let's be concerned about not being defiled, but let's be sure we're focusing on the right thing.

How's your heart? How's your heart? So, Father, I pray today that we would do a little heart checking, and I pray that what comes out of our heart would reveal a holy life, a holy heart, a clean and pure heart, and not defile us, we pray.

And this we ask in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right.

Well, have a good rest of your middle of the week day, and I hope the rest of your week goes well, too.