Good Sunday morning. The
Pharisees are fussing at Jesus again – big surprise. Why do Your disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when
they eat bread. Now of course they're not talking about the way we wash our
hands. This is a ceremonial dipping of the hands into water. Also, it is a
tradition, not part of the law of Moses. Jesus wanted to know why did they
transgress the commandment of God for the sake of their tradition. If someone
used the word corban in a religious vow, he could formally dedicate to God his
earnings that otherwise would have gone for the support of his parents. That
money did not however have to go for religious purposes. It was a means of
circumventing the responsibility of children toward their parents. They did not
honor their father or their mother. Jesus said they invalidated the word of God
for the sake of their tradition. Getting back to the not ceremonially washing
their hands before eating, Jesus said “ not what enters into the mouth defiles
the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” The things
that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts etc. These are the things which defile
the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man. All denominations
and churches have traditions. Many of them are good things; sometimes however
they are just man's way of defining how someone is to live righteously, and are
based on their interpretation of the word of God. Father thank You that the
reader follows Your Word and not the tradition of men. He/she only does what
You want him/her to do.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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