Clean and Unclean a Warning

Clean & Unclean a Warning

"Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,  
“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” 
Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?  
For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’  
But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’  he is not to ‘honor his father’’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.  
You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 
“ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” 
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.  
What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’ ” 
Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.  
Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” 
Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” 
“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.  
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?  
But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’  
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  
These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ” 
                           Matthew 15:1-20
Here Jesus points out that it’s not what we eat or take into our bodies that makes us unclean but what comes out of us.
Our words our deeds make us unclean. The fact that we eat with dirty hands is not the big deal the pharisees make it out to be.
By the time of Jesus the religious higher archy had formed tradition upon tradition. Rules around every law God had ordained to try and prevent people from breaking the law.
It had become so strict that the man made rules had become as important as the law itself. Making it very hard to be observant to the rules for the average person.
He notes that what we take in means little but what comes out of our mouth from our heart is what defiles us.
He states, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  
These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ”
The other point He makes is that the Pharisees were also breaking the law. Jesus noting,
“And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?  
For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’  
But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’  he is not to ‘honor his father’’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
Within the church there are such people today. Pastors and evangelist who would say give to my ministry and God will give you back ten, fifty a hundred fold.
They have encouraged people to the point that especially those of meager means or the elderly have given far more than they could afford only to find the money doesn’t come back.
Don’t get me wrong I think we should give to our home church first what we can afford. A tithe of any amount. But we should not be giving so much as to make ourselves a burden on others.
There are many even in the church today that are not of God. They may look like honest preachers and evangelist but they are not of God.
These people whom God has not planted will one day be uprooted and burned in the fire.
The point here I believe is to be where of these people.
Think about it.