Mark 7:13 KJV
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
The context of this verse stems from the Pharisees questioning why Jesus' disciples ate without washing their hands. One of the commentaries I looked at noted that the Pharisees said their hands were unwashened, not that they were unclean. The issue being dealt with has to do with ceremonial concerns and not sanitary ones. It is obviously a good idea to wash our hands before eating. However, the Pharisees had taken this to another level. They had gone from "cleanliness is next to godliness" to cleanliness is godliness." They had made common sense equal to, and in many cases, above the Word of God.
Perhaps a good definition of a modern Pharisee is one who does the same thing, who takes what is in his opinion, common sense and supplants God's Word with it.
Perhaps he had good intention originally.
Perhaps he only meant to give sage advice and good counsel.
But his worldly wise counsel was not in the Word of God and, being accepted as wisdom and generally acknowledged by others as sound counsel, this advice, though not found in God's Word, became as authoritative as or more so than God's Word.
American Christianity has done that. We have elevated things that are not in the Word of God to the status of the Word of God. Fiscal conservatism, the American family unit (with the wife at home baking biscuits), being a republican rather than a democrat, as well as a number of other reasonable, but not biblical principles have been so elevated that many times they define Christianity rather than the Word of God. In some cases, Christians would cling to them rather than the Word of God, making the Word of God of none effect in their lives.
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
The context of this verse stems from the Pharisees questioning why Jesus' disciples ate without washing their hands. One of the commentaries I looked at noted that the Pharisees said their hands were unwashened, not that they were unclean. The issue being dealt with has to do with ceremonial concerns and not sanitary ones. It is obviously a good idea to wash our hands before eating. However, the Pharisees had taken this to another level. They had gone from "cleanliness is next to godliness" to cleanliness is godliness." They had made common sense equal to, and in many cases, above the Word of God.
Perhaps a good definition of a modern Pharisee is one who does the same thing, who takes what is in his opinion, common sense and supplants God's Word with it.
Perhaps he had good intention originally.
Perhaps he only meant to give sage advice and good counsel.
But his worldly wise counsel was not in the Word of God and, being accepted as wisdom and generally acknowledged by others as sound counsel, this advice, though not found in God's Word, became as authoritative as or more so than God's Word.
American Christianity has done that. We have elevated things that are not in the Word of God to the status of the Word of God. Fiscal conservatism, the American family unit (with the wife at home baking biscuits), being a republican rather than a democrat, as well as a number of other reasonable, but not biblical principles have been so elevated that many times they define Christianity rather than the Word of God. In some cases, Christians would cling to them rather than the Word of God, making the Word of God of none effect in their lives.
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