“The Lord says: ‘These people come near
to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been
taught.’” (Isaiah 29:13, NIV)
They just could not grasp the simple
truth of a heart given to God was all that God wanted from His children in
worship and righteous living. The
Pharisees and the Scribes could not get close to God by their endless rituals because
their hearts were from Him. Their casual
disregard for the essence of God’s heart as they obsessed over their dedication
to multitude of rules did not bring them closer to God but left far away from
Him. Their zealous concentration on thinking
what they exhibited was righteousness blinded them to the magnitude of their
failure to be righteous in their deeds.
We can be just like them. We can be zealous in our thinking, believing what
we show to others about being religious matters, forgetting that God must
matter above all else for Him to really show in what we do. For what is on the outside of a cup might in
appearances look clean and appealing but what is on the inside is of substance
and significance. Our religious fervor
and piety doesn’t matter if God is not the substance and significance of what
matters to us. Worry about what is
inside of you and the outside will take care of itself.
“When He had called all the multitude to
Himself, He said to them, ‘Hear Me, everyone, and understand: There is nothing
that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come
out of him, those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear,
let him hear!’” (Mark &:14-16, NKJV)
Suggested Bible Reading ... Mark 7
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