Arise and Shine: Devotions for Bold Living

WEDNESDAY, 21 MAY 2025

TEXT: Matthew 15:1-20

1: Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,

2: “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

3: Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

4: For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

5: But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’

6: they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

7: You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

9: They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”

10: Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.

11: What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

12: Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

13: He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

14: Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15: Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

16: “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.

17: “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?

18: But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.

19: For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

20: These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

(New International Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: SHOULD WE FOLLOW MAN’S TRADITIONS?

The disciples were learning from Christ how to free themselves from the endless rules and restrictions of the Pharisees who accused them of not following tradition Apostle Paul referred to this in Galatians 1:14.

Christ did not formally defend his disciples nor condemn the Pharisees for their ceremonial ablution but called their attention to inward purity.

The Pharisees would not see what is evil in their daily practices but look for the faults in others. Brethren, this is what religion still does today.

Many people will not check their lives against the demands of the word of God but complain about the wrongs they see in the church and the lives of other believers.

QUESTION: Are you still holding on to tradition while breaking God’s law?

PRAYER: Lord, please help me to stop pointing accusing fingers at others while my deeds are evil, in Jesus’ name. Amen.