Monday, May 20, 2024

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 —

 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 the original 

Ten Commandments 

that have never been amended by the One True God?

Sunday, May 19, 2024

MAY 19 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#16 “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3)

 


MAY 19  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 and Savior, again today as I read previous prayers to start my day, I am simply amazed at how Faithful You have been to Teach me in ways that I could not imagine, ways that Teach me how to grow my faith in Your Faithfulness! 


Here is a prayer written in 2004 that is as timeless as is Your Glory — “Jesus, you alone have the right to claim a kingdom over man and You alone will be the Great LORD and Master over ALL living things. All but Thee have sinned and all but Thee have fallen short of the Glory of God. Lord forgive us in our weakness of the flesh ——— I pray and praise Thee and I acknowledge as did the Apostle Paul that I do the things I shouldn’t and then I don’t do the things I should?!?! 


O Lord, I will keep turning to Thee and praying for forgiveness 

and will continue to start each day looking to walk in Your Ways 

as I come humbly to You in Spirit and in Truth.”     

AMEN


THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus will continue to Teach us in ways that we often miss in the first reading of a particular Lesson but Jesus moves our focus always to the 


Truth of God so if we but look again at His Lesson for the Truth of God that is always at the Heart of every Jesus Lesson, we will have our “spiritual” eyes opened and we will “see by Faith” the Goodness and Truth of God!  


The Holy Spirit has again led me to “extend” the context of this JQ#16 to include the next several verses through Matthew 15:20 as I had missed the 

“Truth of God” 

when I read the text the first time through. The context from Matthew 15:1 through Matthew 15:20 should be carefully studied to gain

 “spiritual” insight for the JESUS Question JQ#16 

of why do we as a society give “man-made traditions” so much authority while we fail to give God His Rightful Authority over ALL things! The 

Truth of God 

is that in our daily lives that when we stop to consider our “traditions”

 we miss the obvious 

Truth of God 

that we never give proper consideration as to where our “traditions” originate — from God or from man? 


This is very similar to the Question Jesus asked the Pharisees when they accused Jesus of breaking the “traditional law of the Sabbath” of the Pharisees regarding Jesus and His disciples when they were plucking heads of grain and eating them on the Sabbath and of Jesus healing a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath also. Jesus answered their question by telling them the 

Truth of God 

that 

“Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12)

 and the Pharisees saw that their “traditional/man-made law” 

has no argument against the 

“Truth of God”.


 Now once again we see the Pharisees questioning Jesus as to another “tradition” that the Pharisees were using against Jesus and that was the tradition of the washing of hands before the eating of bread ——— if Jesus would stop and correct the Pharisees about “traditions established by man”, then we too should stop and learn the Lesson Jesus found important enough to stop and Teach, especially when it concerns the “traditions” that we tend to live by in our daily lives. 


Matthew records this 

Teaching of the Truth of God 

“Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ‘Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they [the disciples] do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (Matthew 15:1) 

Jesus at this point exposes the problem with their “traditions” 

when compared to the 

“Truth of God” 

as Jesus turned their question around 

and posed to the Pharisees regarding “their traditions”  

JQ#16: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God 

because of your traditions?”  (Matthew 15:3) 


By taking their accusation against Him and using it to question their “traditions”, Jesus had once again drawn our attention to one of our daily weaknesses we live with 

and that is that we have been taught and are being taught 

on a daily basis what is packaged as “accepted traditions” 

that do not glorify God! 


I know that in growing up, many, many things I was taught was because that was the way everyone in my immediate family was taught — I now look back and see that many of my friends were doing what they were taught by their families so I have to ask this question,

 

“If we both do what is taught as “tradition” and there is a conflict in our “traditions” then who is right?”


 I can now from my studying of the Word of God 

see why God has been spending so much energy in 

Teaching us to “know” the “Truth of God” 

and to evaluate our “traditions” as to their origination. 


I am grateful that my family was a


 Bible-believing family and our “traditions” were based on God’s Word


 and I am convinced that today’s world needs to evaluate if the “traditions” they are using to live their lives come from the 

True and Living God 

or from the “traditions of men”?


 There can be only One Truth 

and that One Truth is the Truth of God, 

and if every one lived by God’s commandments 

there would never be any conflict in our beliefs? 


Don’t you agree that if we continue to disagree 

that there will never be any hope for peace? 


It is a 

Truth of God 

that a house (or nation) divided against itself can not stand

 and that is certainly true if we consider trying to follow everyone’s personal preferences! Somewhere, somehow, we must 

unite 

under one single 

TRUTH 

and I prefer a tradition that teaches 

“Eternal Life and Forgiveness” 

— what “tradition of men” do you think would be better than the commandments of the

 “Life-Giving God offering Forgiveness of sin” 

to bring world peace?