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10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, "Hear and understand: 11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man." ~ Matthew 15:10-11
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 15 where the Lord Jesus has just been confronted by the Jewish religious leaders who had come to Galilee from Jerusalem. They confronted the Lord Jesus because His disciples were noticed by them for not washing ceremonially before they ate. Of course, as we considered in our last study, this was not a commandment given by God for any other than the priests who worked in the Temple doing their different tasks on the behalf of the people. The Lord Jesus had pointed out that these religious leaders were just that, religious. Those who are religious place emphasis on themselves and their performance particularly in an area where they are good at what needs to be done. And, they think their good performance somehow earns favor with God. We know this not to be true and in fact this is why the Lord Jesus came to earn God's favor for sinful man through His perfectly lived life and His perfectly provided death at the cross.
In today's passage, the Lord Jesus called the multitudes of people to hear Him and understand as a result of their hearing. In John 10:27 we read, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." This is the reason why many never find God, because they refuse to investigate with an open heart. Had these Jewish religious leaders honestly come to the Lord Jesus, they would have found Him. Once we believe in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we began to recognize His voice. Oh, I've never heard His voice with my ears but I have heard it with my heart. Once we have heard Him and we continue to hear Him, we know that we have entered into a personal relationship with Him. This starts out almost unnoticeable but with time we learn to recognize what has happened to us that He awakened our hearts to hear Him.
Learning to hear God with our hearts is biblical faith. This ability comes to us as a result of being awakened to God by the abiding Holy Spirit who leads us and trains us to hear the Father's voice. As this happens, we grow in the assurance that we are the children of God. This does not mean that we have or will always follow Him, there are times when we lose sight of Him when we disobey. But, at the end of the day, the Holy Spirit sees fit that we ultimately follow the Lord. Our rightness before God is not found in our performance.
Somewhere along the way, the Jewish religious leaders had rejected their worship of the God of the Bible and they were being defined by their definitions of all things. Essentially they worshipped themselves. This is how the truth can be lost from one generation to another. This is why we must be diligent, on a daily basis, to bow our wills to Him, so that His truth permeates in and through our lives to the generations that follow.
These Jewish religious leaders kept the law, but not God's law, and, in so doing, they appeared to be in relationship with God but they were not. In context here, the Lord Jesus traced for us what it looks like when the traditions of men supersede His Word. We go the way of these religious leaders when we fail to understand the point of God's definitions of all things, and, our need to allow Him to define us. Throughout the Bible, God gives us His definitions of all things in order to reiterate what life is really all about which is His desire to provide for us our best life which ultimately brings Him glory. But, we have replaced His definitions instead with ours, thinking we know better than He.
The Lord Jesus said, "(It is) not what goes into the mouth (that) defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."
In the Old Testament book of Leviticus God said that certain things that go in to a man can defile him. There were certain foods that God prohibited like animals that don't chew the cud, or animals that don't have claws or hooves or a fish that doesn't have fins and scales. The reason God gave those commandments in the Old Covenant was to protect the Old Testament believers physical health. This teaching did not address the heart or forgiveness of sin, it addressed their quality of life. God's goal is that our hearts are won by Him, but He never forces Himself upon us. He desires for this process to be organic and thus real. Instead of giving Him our hearts, we fall into the trap of religion which prompts us to give Him our stuff like our money, time, and interests. Subconsciously we do not allow Him access to the vulnerable spot in our heart. This is where tradition begins, by not being defined by God, and then, we substitute His Word with ours.
All of this leads us to not loving others as we ought. This is what religious people do, they embrace ritual without reality. And, ritualism without reality leads us to the lack of love. Without a personal relationship with God, ritualism profits us nothing; it is just stale old religion that we all disdain. The religious leaders saw not their sins and their subsequent religion. The solution for such hypocrisy though is repentance. We must be careful to embrace God for ourselves. Even though we may be in a relationship with God, we can fall into these religious patterns. Then we end up trying to make it through this life on our own. The answer is to be embraced by God on a daily basis and to be subsequently defined by Him. We are being defined by God when we walk in obedience to His word. And, we will not be perfect at that. So, give up on that idea of somehow earning God's favor and recognize that even our failure factors into the overall plan of God for our lives.
