Attempting to Protect Yourself from God’s Word

Attempting to Protect Yourself from God’s Word

Mark 7:1-13 – Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, ⁴ and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) — ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Why would they build a fence (this is how the Pharisees referred to the traditions of the elders) around God’s law?  It’s the same reason that we build fences around grade schools—because if there is no fence, the children are unsafe and might wander off into the dangerous street.  Likewise, without the traditions of the elders, God’s people were thought to be in constant danger of wandering off into disobedience.  Ironically, it was the motive and materials of the fence that led to the rebellion and apostasy of the people.  Ultimately, this fence building is utter unbelief and distrust of God and is probably motivated by fear, comfort and/or self-exaltation.  When we adopt this fence mentality, we imply that God’s word is not sufficient; it’s incomplete—we need to kind of hem it in a little bit; it’s too open for interpretation that way it stands; it doesn’t protect us like we can protect ourselves.  Surely God meant to say (fill in the blank); that homeschooling is the faithful way to fulfill Eph. 6; that hymns and the Psalms are the only righteous way to make a joyful noise to the Lord.  We can and must make decisions in these categories, but if we begin to consider them as God’s holy standards, we try to compete with the righteousness of Christ and end up cancelling out God’s Word.  How so?  The self-righteous always possess the highest level of elitism and never love another unless that person thinks and acts exactly as they do.  A self-righteous grasping of traditions and preferences prevents us from loving one another, thus invalidating 100’s of Christ’s commands.  So instead of scaring us, diversity in these things should help us appreciate God’s marvelous purposes for the body of Christ!  This is how we can let God dictate the standard of holiness instead of man.