MAY 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

 MAY 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?”  (Matthew 15:3)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord my day does not really start until this time that I spend with You in prayer.  I thank You for “prayer” and that You have promised to “hear” all prayers that are prayed to You in the Father’s Name and for the Kingdom’s Sake. Lord, when it seems we are all alone and the world is against us we hear Your encouragement to believe You have “been-there-done-that” and that You remind us not to let the world’s hate and rejection get to us because the world hated and rejected You first and You have overcome the world! Lord my prayer is to stay focused on You and Your Commandments to “not fear” and to “love others” as You showed us True Love, the Love You have for us even though You were hated and rejected, yet You died on a cross for us and then on the Third Day You rose Victorious from death and the grave and You reminded us that Your desire is for us to be with You in Your Kingdom! Lord Jesus, let me live with my eyes on You and my heart on Your Kingdom.     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus never let the Truth of God be swept under the carpet of “tradition” established by those that “lord” themselves over the general public. We see the same problem in our society today as was this problem that Jesus addressed in this part of His Ministry on earth ——— the problem is that when a group of self proclaimed elitist from a society elevates themselves above the general public and then “legislates” how the general public should live then they are in effect usurping the sovereignty of God who has already established (Commanded) how the whole of society should live. The results of abusing the trust that the general public puts in their government is what we see today in the form of “laws” being passed for the general public that actually go against the commandment of God, abortion being the most glaring example! It is most obvious that Jesus was addressing this issue when He asked the Pharisees “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3  JQ#16) Jesus is pointing out that the real problem was more than just the “washing of hands”!  Jesus was Teaching us the Truth of God that God Says what He Means and He Means what He Says and there is no reason for man to add to or subtract from the Commandments of God. There is always a group in every society that desires God’s Power for themselves and sadly that group tends to elevate themselves into government positions and then by the “power of legislation” in the name of “the public good” the governing elitist actually take away the God-given freedoms and liberty from the general public and create in effect “government slaves”. God intends for all men to be free and when a society uses any standard other than God’s standard for living a “Free” life, then every law established as “legal-by-man” that goes against a commandment of God serves as another chain around the neck of the society in general. Jesus made it clear that this was important when He “called the multitudes to Himself” (Matthew 15:10) and Taught: “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:10-11) Then when His disciples said the Pharisees were “offended” by His statement against their “Traditional laws” Jesus passed Divine Judgement on them, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” (Matthew 15:13) and then Jesus called them “the blind leading the blind” and said “…both will fall in a ditch!” (Matthew 15:14) When Peter then asked Jesus to “explain” what He meant, Jesus quickly said to Peter, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man…” (Matthew 15:15-20) Jesus makes it clear that just because a man desires to do something against the commandments of God and has stolen from the general public the power to legislate it into “law”, that if our desires are against the commandments of God then those desires will defile us, regardless of how many generations of men accept it as “tradition” or how many “laws” the government passes that every single one of those man-made laws and traditions will “transgress the commandment of God” and will “defile” all who follow “traditions and laws” passed by man apart from the commandments of God! We are between a rock and a hard spot in America today because as a society we are under “government law” and many laws are being enforced as “tradition” in the form of “the law of the land” but in reality if we are disciples of Christ we must “understand” that any law that “transgresses the commandment of God” is not “legal” in God’s Holy Judgement and when God’s Judgement Comes do you think that we will see a copy of the U. S. Constitution and Bill of Rights on the table before the Judge of the Universe or perhaps we will see a simple list of Ten Commandments that have never been amended by the One True God?