"THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME!"

Mark 7:5-23                 (ESV)

"5 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?"

6 And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "'This people HONORS me with THEIR LIPS, "THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME": 

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

8 You leave the commandment of GOD and hold to the tradition of men."

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

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

11 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)-

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

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

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

15 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.

16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

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

18 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,

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

20 And he said, "WHAT COMES OUT OF A PERSON IS WHAT DEFILES HIM.

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

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

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

There are times when what GOD wants to say to me takes more than a few verses.  Today is one of those times.  My comments will be brief in an attempt to keep this study moving.

JESUS is addressing the scribes and Pharisees.  The Scribes and Pharisees were well studied in the law of Moses and the human interpretation of that law.  But JESUS brought out the point that the law had no value IF the heart was unchanged.  JESUS refers to Isaiah 29:13 and explains that unless a heart is changed to be molded into one that GOD can use for HIS glory, then we are living our lives in vain. 

One can read scripture and have all the biblical degrees man can bestow, but if "THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME" then they have missed the boat.  The temporary, earthly, humanistic things will all burn like wood, hay, and stubble (1 Corinthians 3:12).  The things we do for GOD/CHRIST will last forever.  

Are the things that come out of me when things go wrong things of GOD?  Or are they the things listed in verses 21 and 22?  When "pressure" is applied to a fruit, the true juices come out of that fruit.  It is my desire to have Godly characteristics be found when pressure is applied to my life.  I don't want JESUS saying "THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME" when describing me.