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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Mark 7:1-23
Set – Numbers 27; Mark 7
Go! – Numbers 24-27; Mark 7

Mark 7:1-23
¹Then the Pharisees returned to talk with Jesus, and with them came some of the scribes and scholars from Jerusalem.

Scribes and Scholars (seeing the disciples eating): ² Your disciples are eating bread with defiled, unwashed hands.

³ Now you need to know that the Pharisees, and all Jews for that matter, held the tradition of their ancestors that hands must be washed before eating to avoid being ritually unclean. ⁴ Likewise, they washed when they returned from the market and followed similar purity teachings as well, from the washing of their food to the washing of their bowls, cups, and kettles.

Scribes and Pharisees: ⁵ Why don’t Your disciples follow the traditions passed down to us? Why do they eat their bread with defiled hands?

Jesus: ⁶ Isaiah prophesied wisely about your religious pretensions when he wrote,

These people honor Me with words off their lips;
meanwhile their hearts are far from Me.
⁷ Their worship is empty, void of true devotion.
They teach a human commandment, memorized and practiced by rote.[a]
⁸ When you cling blindly to your own traditions [such as washing utensils and cups],[b] you completely miss God’s command. ⁹ Then, indeed, you have perfected setting aside God’s commands for the sake of your tradition. ¹⁰ Moses gave you God’s commandment: “Honor your father and your mother.”[c] And also, “If you curse your father or your mother, you will be put to death.”[d] ¹¹ But you say to your aged parents, “I’ve decided that the support you were expecting from me will now be the holy offering set aside for God.” ¹² After that he is not allowed to do anything for his parents. ¹³ Do you think God wants you to honor your traditions that you have passed down? This is only one of many places where you are blind. ¹⁴ (to the crowd that had gathered) Listen, all of you, to this teaching. I want you to understand. ¹⁵ There is nothing outside someone that can corrupt him. Only the things that come out of a person can corrupt him. [¹⁶ All who have ears to hear, let them listen.][e]

¹⁷ When they had come in from the road, His disciples asked Him what He meant by this teaching.

Jesus: ¹⁸ Do you mean you don’t understand this one either? Whatever goes into people from outside can’t defile them ¹⁹ because it doesn’t go into their hearts. Outside things go through their guts and back out, thus making all foods pure.[f] ²⁰ No, it’s what comes from within that corrupts. ^21-22 It’s what grows out of the hearts of people that leads to corruption: evil thoughts, immoral sex, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wicked acts, treachery, sensuality, jealousy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All of these come from within, and these are the sins that truly corrupt a person.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

My instructions can get so twisted around sometimes that they are hardly recognizable. I’m amazed at times at how perverted the traditions and rituals of men can get. How painful you can make life for yourselves and others with the twist of words and the upholding of misinterpreted sanctions that fail to meet the test of what I really want from you. It’s a simple test through which you can filter all your traditions and rituals to see if they stand up to my commands. Remember what Jesus told those scribes who tried to trick Him? Remember His answer to their request?

They asked, “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment?

Jesus answered, “The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Everything else hangs on these two commands.”

All you need to do is check your tradition against that marker. Does it fulfill that first and second commandment? Does it express love to God and love to your neighbor? That’s the metric. The examples Jesus pulled out of the traditions didn’t measure up. Giving their parents support to Me doesn’t honor Me, I don’t need your support. You need to give Me your support. There is a difference. Your parents don’t need your honor, but you need to honor them. There is a difference.

When you put your petty traditions or rituals above loving Me or caring for My children, you’ve gone too far in your religiosity. You’ve starting playing church instead of getting at the root of who I want you to become. I want you to be rooted in love for Me and for each other. I want love and compassion for the crowning glory of My creation to be the default button for all your actions. It’s only through loving your fellow man that you can express what I want from you. I am love. If you’re going to be like Me, you too must love.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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