From the desk of Pastor Ben

The Principle of Spiritual Defilement – Part 2

After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”        (Matthew 15:10-11)

Keeping ritual and tradition demands no repentance and fleeing from sin; rather, it permits people to flaunt religious symbols while holding on to their sins. Tradition involves style over substance, places works ahead of faith, and ends up being empty and hypocritical.

The Jews and their leaders not only failed to embrace the spiritual truths represented by ritual, but they added hundreds, may be thousands more rituals and traditions. The more these representations multiplied, the more people trusted in them and the less they trusted in God. So, when Jesus came among His countrymen, they were so entangled with their understandings of defilement and morality and so far from Scriptural reality that they crucified Him.

Even Jewish believers in the early church had a lot of difficulty in forsaking their former mindset concerning traditions and what was clean and unclean. Peter needed a divine vision, repeated 3 times, and a special demonstration of the Spirit’s power to convince him that all foods and people are accepted by God (Acts 10:1-33). Paul gives us a fitting summary:    “If you have died with Christ . . .why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” . . .in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion . . .but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” (Colossians 2:20-23)

Ask Yourself:
What have you noticed about those who treat their religious practices with superstitious caution, as though they were good-luck charms meant to ward off any harm that might come their way? What do they misunderstand most about God by exercising their faith in this way?