Mark 7:1 ¶
Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes,
which came from Jerusalem. 2 And when
they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with
unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3 For
the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat
not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4
And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat
not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as
the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why
walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread
with unwashen hands? 6 He answered and
said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is
written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they
worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye
hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many
other such like things ye do. 9 And he
said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep
your own tradition. 10 For Moses said,
Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him
die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man
shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift,
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his
father or his mother; 13 Making the word
of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many
such like things do ye. 14 And when he
had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me
every one of you, and understand: 15
There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile
him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
16 If any man have ears to hear, let him
hear. 17 And when he was entered into
the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.
18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so
without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from
without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but
into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20 And he said, That which cometh out of the
man, that defileth the man. 21 For from
within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from
within, and defile the man.
1
¶ Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which
came from Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with
defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
Leviticus
15:11 And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his
hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be
unclean until the even.
Psalm
26:6 ¶ I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O
LORD:
Obviously,
in this context, ‘defiled’ means unclean or unwashen. The Pharisees have a rule
that in order to be spiritual and godly you must wash your hands before you
eat. Now, we know that washing your hands is necessary for the prevention of
many diseases. However, one of the marks of a Pharisee is regarding how you
look on the outside, such as your manner of dress. Pharisees also judge others
by the ritual they do. A Pharisee determines your spirituality by how faithful
you are to church, to soul winning WITH the church, and how many church
functions you attend. These things can be done by anyone who feels that they’ll
get something positive for their lives out of being involved in these things
but it does not determine how close they are to Christ. Usually, it involves
adding to the Bible. For instance, Sunday School is not scriptural but it is a
good thing, but to say that the health of your church depends upon the size of
your Sunday School class is to belittle the scripture as being inconclusive or
as having holes in it.
It
has been proven time and time again that unsaved people and nominal Christians
can attend church faithfully and do all of the things that a Pastor would smile
upon, such as come down to the front step on which the podium the preacher
speaks from stands which fundamentalists like to call “the altar”, and it means
absolutely nothing. These “aisle athletes” will come down to the “altar” every
single service just about. This only shows that either they are not doing their
duty throughout the week by getting on their face before God and dealing with
their sins every day or that they are trying to get approval from the Pastor.
These sheep are most likely not feeding themselves with God’s word the rest of
the time in which they aren’t in church. Fundamentalist Pastors are not big on
Bible reading because they have no control over it and they are usually too
short sighted to realize that a Bible reading church will be a faithful church.
There is also the possibility that a fundamentalist Pastor will be concerned that
his errors of doctrine will be all to obvious to a congregation that knows true
doctrine from reading the Bible daily and in great depth.
While
Sadducees say “it’s all good” and have no standards of any import, the
Pharisees mistake standards and separation for a relationship with Jesus
Christ. Neither are correct. Sadducees have all sorts of Bible versions that
say different things. The Pharisee has the correct Bible but twists the plain
words of Scripture to justify their own convictions, as in teachings on whether
or not a Pastor can have been divorced before he was saved or after if it was
his wife who sinned against him, or whether or not animals have souls and
spirits, or regarding eternal security, etc.
Sadducees and Pharisees both
today mingle humanism and pop psychology in their sermons and make the Bible
gibberish by using verses completely out of context to force the Bible to not
only contradict itself but to mean things it doesn’t say.
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