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Beyond Rituals: The Heart of True Worship

1. Confronting Misguided Customs

Mark 7:1 ESV

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,

Mark 7:2 ESV

they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

Mark 7:3 ESV

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,

Mark 7:4 ESV

and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)

Mark 7:5 ESV

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Mark 7:6 ESV

And he 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;

Mark 7:7 ESV

in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Mark 7:8 ESV

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

2. Critiquing Empty Rituals

Mark 7:9 ESV

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

Mark 7:10 ESV

For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Mark 7:11 ESV

But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)—

Mark 7:12 ESV

then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,

Mark 7:13 ESV

thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

3. Cleaning Our Inner Hearts

Mark 7:14 ESV

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand:

Mark 7:15 ESV

There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Mark 7:17 ESV

And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.

Mark 7:18 ESV

And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,

Mark 7:19 ESV

since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

4. Cultivating a Christlike Character

Mark 7:20 ESV

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

Mark 7:21 ESV

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

Mark 7:22 ESV

coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

Mark 7:23 ESV

All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”