It's the Inside That Counts

Matthew 15:1-20

1 Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, 2 “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”

3 Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? 4 For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 5 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ 6 In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

8 ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ ”

10 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 11 It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”

12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”

13 Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, 14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”

15 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”

16 “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. 17 “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. 18 But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. 20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”

Who would have thought that these words from Jesus 2,000 years ago would still be applicable to today? Apparently people don't learn from mistakes made in the past. There are still a lot of people, even whole denominations, that still worry about man made rules and regulations that they think they must follow, yet don't worry about the words they say. We need to learn from what Jesus is saying to us here in these verses.

The Pharisees were worried about whether the disciples washed their hands before they ate and Jesus was concerned with what was in their hearts. People who love legalism will always be more concerned with the "rules" (usually man made ones) and who breaks them and what their punishment should be instead of what is going on in their hearts. The words from Isaiah say it the best: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God." That is what is at the heart of any religion that focuses on what you do, what you don't do or when you do something instead of what is your motivation for doing it. A religion of "works" will not lead to salvation. The Lord is very clear that you cannot work your way into heaven. There is one way and one way only into heaven and that is through the redemptive work of Jesus and His shed blood on the cross for our sins.

When Jesus was talking about the words we use in verse 18 He was right on with what He said. If you think about your words being containers that can either create or destroy you tend to think before you act. I was sadened last night watching the finale of Survivor because three of the people who had been voted out were plotting ahead of time what mean and nasty things they could say to the three remaining tribes people. That does not reflect well on them as people, but it is exactly what Jesus said in verse 19.

Think about this question for a moment, How did God create the universe? If you read the first chapter of Genesis it will be very apparent that He created everything with His words. Since we were created in His image we too can create with our words. We can build people up, encourage them, edify them and we can also destroy people with our words. We can tear them down, discourage them and cause great harm to them by the words we speak into their lives. When I was a kid growing up I would do almost anything to get attention from others. One of the things I excelled in was making fun of other people. I would say what ever I could to get a laugh from others and often times it was at the expense of someone else. I wished I had not acted in that manner. I was not aware of the power of my words nor was I aware of the damage that could come about through those words.

I thank God that Jesus cleansed me from those mistakes by hanging on that cross for me and for all people. I thank Jesus that He followed the plan for His life and through that plan He revealed to us how we should live our lives so we can spend eternity with Him. I thank God for working through the scribes who wrote down what the Holy Spirit instructed them to write so we could learn what to do, what to say and how to act and also learn from what not to do, say or how to act. I thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit who dwells inside me to provide direction and instruction into the ways of life. I am thankful for all those who call me friend and I pray that I input more of Jesus into their lives each day and that God will continue to work in me and through me until I go home to be with Him. I pray this in Jesus Name, Amen.