EXPLORE THE TEXT
Pray for your heart to remain close to God.
7 “Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:
8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
9 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”
10 Summoning the crowd, he told them, “Listen and understand:
11 It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person,
but what comes out of the mouth-this defiles a person.”
The Greek word for “hypocrites” relates to an actor who puts on a mask to play a role.
Consider why this term appropriately described the Pharisees and scribes.
Briefly discuss how Isaiah’s prophecy supported Jesus’s criticism:
Isaiah denounced the people of his day for their inauthentic worship.
They gave the appearance of a genuine relationship with God through their worship.
In reality, they were simply going through the motions while ignoring God’s desires.
Their relationship with God was shallow at best, and non-existent at worst. .Because following God’s law perfectly is unobtainable,
it was easier to create man-made rules that could be followed successfully.
Keeping these traditions would provide a sense of self-satisfaction and pride.
But following man-made traditions actually moved them farther from God. (PSG, pp. 22-23)
Jesus turned His attention to the crowd and explained that moral purity begins with the heart.
Highlight that what goes into a person’s mouth (like food)
has no real impact on spiritual health.
Instead, we have to be careful about what goes into our hearts
because that is what reveals our spiritual condition,
whether we are loyal to God’s Word or drifting farther from Him.