Hope in The Word Mark 7:1-23

Hope Church continues our new series of Podcasts "Hope in the Word". Today we look at Mark 7:1-23 and people share what they learn from this passage and their experiences. Faith prays and Laura reads the passage for us.

In today’s passage we read about a discussion between Jesus and the Pharisees about traditions and commandments.  We look at the importance of a heart relationship with Jesus and reading God’s word and not getting trapped in traditions and legalism.

 

Mark 7:1-13

 

Traditions and Commandments

7 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, ² they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,^[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, ⁴ and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.^[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.^[c]) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ⁶ And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
⁷ in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹ And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)^[d]— ¹² then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Footnotes

1. Mark 7:3 Greek unless they wash the hands with a fist, probably indicating a kind of ceremonial washing
2. Mark 7:4 Greek unless they baptize; some manuscripts unless they purify themselves
3. Mark 7:4 Some manuscripts omit and dining couches
4. Mark 7:11 Or an offering