Doctrines of Men (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20)

Doctrines of Men (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20)

In our home we like to play board games and card games as a family, but one family member cannot stand to lose so he always is trying to manipulate the rules to insure he wins. Jeremiah can not stand to not win and to say that he is a sore loser is un understatement. Every game we play comes with a set of rules on how to play and we make sure that we read them before we get started so everyone knows how to play and how to win. Jeremiah is notorious for trying to flip the rules around to give him self an advantage, so he forgets the rules of the game and just goes with his own rules. In our parable from Matthew 15:10-20 we see where the Pharisees did the same thing with their religion. The God given rules that they had was not enough, so they had to add their own rules that made it a sin to eat food with unwashed hands. It appalled them to see Jesus disciples not washing their hands before they ate because their rules said this was a no, no. Jesus immediately let them know that it was not what went into a man that defiled him but instead the things that came out such as angry, hatred, lust, adultery, etc. is what defiled them.

If you read the account of this same parable in Mark 7:5-9 we see that Jesus lets them know just how hypocritical they all where, by esteeming the traditions of men over the commandments of God. He said that Isaiah spoke of them when he said, “this people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” I am not sure why the Pharisees thought they could improve upon the commandments of God, but the same thing is still be done today in the modern church. Individuals, denominations, and churches want to add their doctrine to the Bible and hold everyone around them accountable for what they have deemed as sound doctrine. If you do not worship like them, you are a sinner; you do not read their translation of the Bible you are a sinner; you do not dress like them you are a sinner, and you can go on and on. There is absolutely nothing wrong setting standards or separating your self from this world but there is something wrong when you try to judge the world around you by your man-made doctrine instead of the commandments of God. The Pharisees found them self in a place where they felt like they were honoring God with their lives when they were dishonoring God by esteeming man-made traditions over the Word of God. When Jesus pointed this out to them, instead of being convicted and repenting, they were angry that someone would have the audacity to challenge what they knew to be true.