Today's Verses: Matthew 15:5-6 (NIV)
Jesus said: 5 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,’ 6 he is not to ‘honor his father[c]’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
[c] Some manuscripts father or his mother
In this passage, Jesus refers to the traditional concept of "corban" in which some Jews would dedicate money that they would normally give to their parents, instead, to the Temple. They would then make the excuse that, because the money was given to God, there was no need to give it to their parents.
Today's Comments: This verse is a good example of the practice of Jewish legalism. While the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus for the failure to ceremoniously wash His hands or to heal on the sabbath, they were twisting their own laws or traditions so that, if they did not want to monetarily help their fathers and mothers in their old age, they could dedicate that money that would normally be used for that purpose to use in the temple, thus completely ignoring their obligations to take care of their parents.
Another example of such Jewish legalism is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Both the Priest and the Levite bypassed the traveler in need, because they did not want to make themselves unclean by handling what they considered to be unclean.
We have legalism in our churches today when we use tradition to prevent us from loving our neighbor. When tradition commands us to disobey God's Great Commandments, it is wrong. It is scripture which needs to be viewed as our final authority. And yet, as we find in this postmodern Christian world, if scripture becomes another subject for literary criticism, we now only have tradition upon which to fall back. When we demote scripture to that which is is culturally interpreted, we permit cultural tradition to become our standard of behavior, and we miss the whole purpose and content of God's revealed word.
Jesus said: 5 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,’ 6 he is not to ‘honor his father[c]’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
[c] Some manuscripts father or his mother
In this passage, Jesus refers to the traditional concept of "corban" in which some Jews would dedicate money that they would normally give to their parents, instead, to the Temple. They would then make the excuse that, because the money was given to God, there was no need to give it to their parents.
Today's Comments: This verse is a good example of the practice of Jewish legalism. While the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus for the failure to ceremoniously wash His hands or to heal on the sabbath, they were twisting their own laws or traditions so that, if they did not want to monetarily help their fathers and mothers in their old age, they could dedicate that money that would normally be used for that purpose to use in the temple, thus completely ignoring their obligations to take care of their parents.
Another example of such Jewish legalism is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Both the Priest and the Levite bypassed the traveler in need, because they did not want to make themselves unclean by handling what they considered to be unclean.
We have legalism in our churches today when we use tradition to prevent us from loving our neighbor. When tradition commands us to disobey God's Great Commandments, it is wrong. It is scripture which needs to be viewed as our final authority. And yet, as we find in this postmodern Christian world, if scripture becomes another subject for literary criticism, we now only have tradition upon which to fall back. When we demote scripture to that which is is culturally interpreted, we permit cultural tradition to become our standard of behavior, and we miss the whole purpose and content of God's revealed word.
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