The commandments of men

The last book of the Bible has a warning for those who would add to the book or subtract from it, Rev. 22. 18, 19. Mankind has always had the inclination to tinker with divine instructions, right from the day when Eve misquoted God’s original command, Gen. 3. 3. This was never more apparent than when the Lord Jesus was here, and the nation was dominated by the hypocritical religious thinking of the Pharisees. A glut of man-made rules was superimposed upon God’s law.

Frequently, the Lord and His disciples fell foul of these strictures, and, on this occasion, criticism was levelled at the disciples because they ignored elaborate ceremonial ablutions before eating. In responding, the Lord Jesus systematically exposed their hypocrisy. Firstly, He showed that their mind-set amply illustrated the prediction of Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13. Let us learn the lesson that paying lip-service to God from a cold and wayward heart is totally unacceptable, and portraying human regulations as divine laws renders our worship vain.

Next, He exposed their inconsistency; they were giving human traditions precedence over God-given commands. This was particularly objectionable in respect of their attitude to their parents. A human tradition was giving them licence to neglect them, and thus ignore one of the basic commandments of the ten. That was just one example of their actions: ‘many such like things do ye’, v. 13. Never allow man-made rules to supersede divine directives, or even to rank alongside them.

Thirdly, He made the clear point that from God’s standpoint it is not what we put into our mouths that defiles us. It proceeds through the alimentary canal, and the impurities are dealt with. What defiles us are the things that proceed from the heart, and the Lord lists an appalling range of evil in thought, word and deed. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked’, Jer. 17. 9. Our corrupt human nature is a deep well from which every foul evil is discharged. As believers, we are grateful for the cleansing provided by precious blood, 1 John 1. 7; Rev. 1. 5; we ‘purified [our] souls in obeying the truth’, 1 Pet. 1. 22. But, practically, ‘keep thyself pure’, 1 Tim. 5. 22.