Beliefs Rule Mar 26
Mark 7:6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,/But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,/Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Belief is the foundation of our being.
A number of people in different ages and times have spoken of this fact. Beliefs become thoughts become words become actions become habits become character become destiny.
Solomon summed up the process: For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7) The heart is the center.
The proverb tells us that the heart is the gatekeeper determining our relationship with the world, controlling what is allowed into our calculations and what we reveal from within to the world.
The common assumption is that the brain determines our direction and the brain is in control of the body. Anyone who has struggled with love, hate, despair, or any strong emotion, and lost the battle can testify to the overwhelming power of the heart over the mind.
God says through Isaiah that the people say the right things, but their hearts are not in their words. Their actions belie their words.
There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9). Jesus states that the Pharisees and their followers are doing the same thing all of these hundreds of years later.
And do we not see ourselves and those around us doing the same thing these two millennia after Jesus’ day?
Have we learned to say the right things and appear to be a certain way, dressing our speech and appearance in accordance with God’s will, but our hearts dictate actions that are in opposition to this?
Perhaps it is time for a wilderness experience to examine the heart, to explore the foundation of our beliefs.
Control Mar 27
Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”
The religious leaders sought control of the spiritual realm. By redefining the rules, they thought they had control. A religion focused on laws replaced a spiritual union with God based on relationship.
The basic tenets of religion are a belief in one or more supernatural powers. Creating the universe may or may not be part of the religion, but having power and abilities above mere mortals is definite. For monotheistic Israel, there was a God Who had created the world and had given His people a set of laws by which to live.
Laws dictate acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Breaking the law has consequences, both in terms of the law and character of the individual.
The Ten Commandments were a covenant between God and mankind, an agreement on how God and the Israelites were to relate to each other and how the people were to relate with one another.
Clearly defined penalties or sacrifices encouraged restoration of the sinner’s relationship with God. Additional laws established rules for restoring or remaining in relationship with other people.
The religious leaders were the Law interpreters and, eventually, were establishers of more detailed laws. These additional laws were relatively superficial, primarily dealing with external matters, such as diet, Sabbath observance, clothing, and such. These became law by tradition, by practice rather than by the command of God.
Lawmaking is a very great power easily abused.
Changing the Law Mar 28
Mark 7:9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
God respected mankind enough to give them the freedom of obedience or disobedience to the Law. He did not remove the freedom of choice, nor did He remove the natural consequences.
The traditions of men, additions to the Law originally given, came to be the doctrine of faith. This religious law, rather than divine Law, became belief.
The result was that the religious law could be maintained perfectly while the spirit of the Ten Commandments was violated egregiously.
Rewriting the Law in favor of works unrelated to character or relationship allowed the doctrinal doctors to place God in their debt. After all, if they performed what they regarded as His Law perfectly, God was bound by the covenant to show them His favor.
Tradition and doctrine became substitutes for the Commandments of God. This was Jesus’ charge, an accurate appraisal of a corrupt system. But the system had been in place for so long that it was normal rather than a travesty of justice.
What in the modern Christian belief system, the traditions and doctrines of the various denominations, rejects the spirit of God’s Commandments?
The universe is a living organism. Its existence implies an underlying force, a power that has created the physical reality and the rules by which it operates. We tinker with those rules to our own detriment.
Overthrowing the Commandments Mar 29
Mark 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
When a government is overthrown, a new power takes the reins and establishes new laws in accordance with the values of its supporters. Although the religious leaders still gave nominal authority to God, they had rewritten His code of laws in accordance with their own desires.
In effect, they made themselves as gods.
Jesus gives an example here of the nullification of the fifth Commandment by placing mankind’s law above it.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Ex. 20:12).
This Commandment is a very straightforward command with a promise attached. Corban, a gift or offering to God, is clear on the surface, but the understanding is muddied by interpretation.
A man could dedicate his wealth as Corban, a gift to the Temple Treasury, but there was no deadline as to when the wealth would be transferred. And without any accountability, the wealth cold be retained as long as desired, but withheld from expenses the man wished to avoid. A son need not support his parents in their old age using this logic.
The natural order of relationship, a person with God, with family, and with the family of mankind, has been established from the beginning of time. “Tradition” is hardly a reason for overturning this truth.
Nullifying God Mar 30
Mark 7:13 “…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Belief in God includes the knowledge that He has created all things. His order is the original order of the universe that allows existence to continue as all of the parts combine to create an enduring whole.
When we disturb this order by inserting our own “word,” our substitute law, we disturb the wholeness, the oneness that holds all of existence in a dynamic and enduring equilibrium.
Becoming lawmakers, we have made the word of God of no effect. Destroying the web of relationship based on its central piece, we have become lawbreakers.
This is like an airport manager changing scheduled landing and departure times to suit his lunch break. Eventually, the schedules of all flights around the world are thrown into confusion. Chaos ensues and becomes the new normal. The lunch break becomes the lynch pin of flight scheduling rather than the efficient and effective transportation of people. A new tradition!
The Pharisees willfully destroyed the relationship between parent and child with this particular tradition of corban. A small reinterpretation of the Scriptures destroyed the essence of the parent-child relationship.
Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the law, interpret it incorrectly, but to fulfill the law, to interpret it correctly and to live by God’s intention.
We are still to live by God’s intention for us, not by mankind’s reinterpretation of this intent.
Chaos Mar 31
Mark 7:13 “…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
We look for certainty in an uncertain world. The Israelites in Sinai following the exodus is a parable of the human condition.
The wilderness was meant to be a temporary layover between bondage and freedom, between paradise and emptiness, between heaven and hell. This was the changing room to adjust to the new reality awaiting the exiles beyond the river.
The laws were basic in their literal meaning, and all-encompassing in their figurative meaning. They were meant as a stepping stone to the Oneness of all of Creation and God.
Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments to two, love of God and love of other people. The common denominator is the one law of love.
“Tradition,” words from someone long ago, were at one point simply apostasy. Someone rejected God by substituting their words for God’s intention. This violated the first law of love and, by encouraging others to do the same, also violated the second law of love.
The brain can make sense out of almost any distortion of truth, seeing the lie as preferable to the truth. But the heart knows. It is the heart that governs, that allows the brain to rule, or stands firm and says, “No!”
We must constantly choose between the God and not-God. Jesus sides with God and His prophets. They call for a heart of flesh rather than of stone.
Truth and its order are true at every point in time, but our ability and our willingness to submit to truth are highly variable.
Lawful but Not Profitable Apr 1
Mark 7:14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 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. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The doctrinal experts had self-righteously complained of the violation of the law of cleanliness by Jesus’ disciples, for they had eaten without practicing a ceremonial cleansing, the washing of their hands before eating.
Jesus’ response in the preceding verses has shown how His critics have disregarded the intent of the Law given at Sinai by establishing a contrary tradition. He has used Isaiah’s words as support (Mar 25).
Jesus now proceeds to redefine the source of uncleanliness. In doing so, He contrasts the doctrines of men with the intent of God’s guidance given to mankind in order to lead them to lives blessed with peace and abundance.
The law, as derived from the traditions of men, had substituted cleanness of the body for cleanness of the heart. The external washings necessary to consider a person clean changed nothing of the moral or spiritual character. An external washing did not make a person holy, set apart to God.
Jesus shows that uncleanness is impurity of the heart, the violation of oneness with God. The first priority is relationship with God, oneness with Him. A heart intent on following its own desires cannot be united with God. And only when one with God will oneness with His creation be achieved.
Whether a person ate a forbidden food or with dirty hands might be unhealthy for the physical body, but such a person still could be pure in heart and not defiled or made unclean.
Paul made this clear: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Cor. 6:12).
Spiritual uncleanness is an issue of the heart and comes from within the person. The willful preference for the doctrine of men rather than the ways of life as defined by the Creator of life is the result of an unclean heart.
The contrast that Jesus presents to those who will listen, who have the ears to hear, clearly distinguishes between what is acceptable to God and what mankind has substituted as religious doctrine.
Next day
Mark 7:6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,/But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,/Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Belief is the foundation of our being.
A number of people in different ages and times have spoken of this fact. Beliefs become thoughts become words become actions become habits become character become destiny.
Solomon summed up the process: For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7) The heart is the center.
The proverb tells us that the heart is the gatekeeper determining our relationship with the world, controlling what is allowed into our calculations and what we reveal from within to the world.
The common assumption is that the brain determines our direction and the brain is in control of the body. Anyone who has struggled with love, hate, despair, or any strong emotion, and lost the battle can testify to the overwhelming power of the heart over the mind.
God says through Isaiah that the people say the right things, but their hearts are not in their words. Their actions belie their words.
There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9). Jesus states that the Pharisees and their followers are doing the same thing all of these hundreds of years later.
And do we not see ourselves and those around us doing the same thing these two millennia after Jesus’ day?
Have we learned to say the right things and appear to be a certain way, dressing our speech and appearance in accordance with God’s will, but our hearts dictate actions that are in opposition to this?
Perhaps it is time for a wilderness experience to examine the heart, to explore the foundation of our beliefs.
Control Mar 27
Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”
The religious leaders sought control of the spiritual realm. By redefining the rules, they thought they had control. A religion focused on laws replaced a spiritual union with God based on relationship.
The basic tenets of religion are a belief in one or more supernatural powers. Creating the universe may or may not be part of the religion, but having power and abilities above mere mortals is definite. For monotheistic Israel, there was a God Who had created the world and had given His people a set of laws by which to live.
Laws dictate acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Breaking the law has consequences, both in terms of the law and character of the individual.
The Ten Commandments were a covenant between God and mankind, an agreement on how God and the Israelites were to relate to each other and how the people were to relate with one another.
Clearly defined penalties or sacrifices encouraged restoration of the sinner’s relationship with God. Additional laws established rules for restoring or remaining in relationship with other people.
The religious leaders were the Law interpreters and, eventually, were establishers of more detailed laws. These additional laws were relatively superficial, primarily dealing with external matters, such as diet, Sabbath observance, clothing, and such. These became law by tradition, by practice rather than by the command of God.
Lawmaking is a very great power easily abused.
Changing the Law Mar 28
Mark 7:9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
God respected mankind enough to give them the freedom of obedience or disobedience to the Law. He did not remove the freedom of choice, nor did He remove the natural consequences.
The traditions of men, additions to the Law originally given, came to be the doctrine of faith. This religious law, rather than divine Law, became belief.
The result was that the religious law could be maintained perfectly while the spirit of the Ten Commandments was violated egregiously.
Rewriting the Law in favor of works unrelated to character or relationship allowed the doctrinal doctors to place God in their debt. After all, if they performed what they regarded as His Law perfectly, God was bound by the covenant to show them His favor.
Tradition and doctrine became substitutes for the Commandments of God. This was Jesus’ charge, an accurate appraisal of a corrupt system. But the system had been in place for so long that it was normal rather than a travesty of justice.
What in the modern Christian belief system, the traditions and doctrines of the various denominations, rejects the spirit of God’s Commandments?
The universe is a living organism. Its existence implies an underlying force, a power that has created the physical reality and the rules by which it operates. We tinker with those rules to our own detriment.
Overthrowing the Commandments Mar 29
Mark 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
When a government is overthrown, a new power takes the reins and establishes new laws in accordance with the values of its supporters. Although the religious leaders still gave nominal authority to God, they had rewritten His code of laws in accordance with their own desires.
In effect, they made themselves as gods.
Jesus gives an example here of the nullification of the fifth Commandment by placing mankind’s law above it.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Ex. 20:12).
This Commandment is a very straightforward command with a promise attached. Corban, a gift or offering to God, is clear on the surface, but the understanding is muddied by interpretation.
A man could dedicate his wealth as Corban, a gift to the Temple Treasury, but there was no deadline as to when the wealth would be transferred. And without any accountability, the wealth cold be retained as long as desired, but withheld from expenses the man wished to avoid. A son need not support his parents in their old age using this logic.
The natural order of relationship, a person with God, with family, and with the family of mankind, has been established from the beginning of time. “Tradition” is hardly a reason for overturning this truth.
Nullifying God Mar 30
Mark 7:13 “…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Belief in God includes the knowledge that He has created all things. His order is the original order of the universe that allows existence to continue as all of the parts combine to create an enduring whole.
When we disturb this order by inserting our own “word,” our substitute law, we disturb the wholeness, the oneness that holds all of existence in a dynamic and enduring equilibrium.
Becoming lawmakers, we have made the word of God of no effect. Destroying the web of relationship based on its central piece, we have become lawbreakers.
This is like an airport manager changing scheduled landing and departure times to suit his lunch break. Eventually, the schedules of all flights around the world are thrown into confusion. Chaos ensues and becomes the new normal. The lunch break becomes the lynch pin of flight scheduling rather than the efficient and effective transportation of people. A new tradition!
The Pharisees willfully destroyed the relationship between parent and child with this particular tradition of corban. A small reinterpretation of the Scriptures destroyed the essence of the parent-child relationship.
Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the law, interpret it incorrectly, but to fulfill the law, to interpret it correctly and to live by God’s intention.
We are still to live by God’s intention for us, not by mankind’s reinterpretation of this intent.
Chaos Mar 31
Mark 7:13 “…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
We look for certainty in an uncertain world. The Israelites in Sinai following the exodus is a parable of the human condition.
The wilderness was meant to be a temporary layover between bondage and freedom, between paradise and emptiness, between heaven and hell. This was the changing room to adjust to the new reality awaiting the exiles beyond the river.
The laws were basic in their literal meaning, and all-encompassing in their figurative meaning. They were meant as a stepping stone to the Oneness of all of Creation and God.
Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments to two, love of God and love of other people. The common denominator is the one law of love.
“Tradition,” words from someone long ago, were at one point simply apostasy. Someone rejected God by substituting their words for God’s intention. This violated the first law of love and, by encouraging others to do the same, also violated the second law of love.
The brain can make sense out of almost any distortion of truth, seeing the lie as preferable to the truth. But the heart knows. It is the heart that governs, that allows the brain to rule, or stands firm and says, “No!”
We must constantly choose between the God and not-God. Jesus sides with God and His prophets. They call for a heart of flesh rather than of stone.
Truth and its order are true at every point in time, but our ability and our willingness to submit to truth are highly variable.
Lawful but Not Profitable Apr 1
Mark 7:14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 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. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The doctrinal experts had self-righteously complained of the violation of the law of cleanliness by Jesus’ disciples, for they had eaten without practicing a ceremonial cleansing, the washing of their hands before eating.
Jesus’ response in the preceding verses has shown how His critics have disregarded the intent of the Law given at Sinai by establishing a contrary tradition. He has used Isaiah’s words as support (Mar 25).
Jesus now proceeds to redefine the source of uncleanliness. In doing so, He contrasts the doctrines of men with the intent of God’s guidance given to mankind in order to lead them to lives blessed with peace and abundance.
The law, as derived from the traditions of men, had substituted cleanness of the body for cleanness of the heart. The external washings necessary to consider a person clean changed nothing of the moral or spiritual character. An external washing did not make a person holy, set apart to God.
Jesus shows that uncleanness is impurity of the heart, the violation of oneness with God. The first priority is relationship with God, oneness with Him. A heart intent on following its own desires cannot be united with God. And only when one with God will oneness with His creation be achieved.
Whether a person ate a forbidden food or with dirty hands might be unhealthy for the physical body, but such a person still could be pure in heart and not defiled or made unclean.
Paul made this clear: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Cor. 6:12).
Spiritual uncleanness is an issue of the heart and comes from within the person. The willful preference for the doctrine of men rather than the ways of life as defined by the Creator of life is the result of an unclean heart.
The contrast that Jesus presents to those who will listen, who have the ears to hear, clearly distinguishes between what is acceptable to God and what mankind has substituted as religious doctrine.
Next day
