Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
THURSDAY, July 28
Mark 7:1-23. Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?
Whenever people believe they need to follow everything in the Bible just as it is written in English (even though the original passages were in Hebrew or Greek), I wonder what they make of this passage. The disciples were eating without washing their hands. Their elders’ tradition was to wash hands, things from the market, cups, pots, and bronze kettles. Would today’s legalists stop wash- ing their hands and kitchen equipment, copying the first followers of Jesus?
Answering the question, Jesus warns us not to teach “human precepts as doctrines.” He counters legalism, explaining that it is not following tradition that is the key to the kingdom, but inclining our hearts to the commandment of God. Righteousness comes not from mimicking the way things have always been done, but from relying on God to transform our evil intentions.
The key to God’s kingdom lies not in arranging the altar flowers or reverencing the cross or separating consecrated and unconsecrated wafers, but in the angle of our hearts while we are in the midst of these actions. Are we tilted toward God or merely going through customary motions?
PRAY for the Diocese of Pretoria (South Africa)
Ps [70], 71 * 74; 2 Samuel 4:1-12; Acts 16:25-40
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