He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “´These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; there teachings are merely human rules.´ Mark 7:6-7 (TNIV)
Wow, strong words are coming from our Savior. He is not holding back as he lets the bold accusers have it. The Pharisees and teachers of the people were merely bringing attention to the fact that the Disciples were not following the religious norm. Why was Jesus attacking them so harshly? It was true that the Disciples knew what was acceptable, as had been taught, but they were still going against the rule.
Yet Jesus saw through their duplicity. He always sees through our front and looks way past all the externals. Jesus looks into the heart and soul of the individual. He sees what is moving us to say and do the things we do. He knows the secret motives behind everything, even the things we hide from ourselves. We may want to believe that our intentions are good, but behind our backs, self, the world or the devil is up to no good. Many times we do something thinking that it is a pure and noble, but our soul has been tampered with.
For example, we go to church. We know that by attending a service we are bringing ourselves before the Lord. We know that we will be congregating with other believers and sharing the wonderful experience of worshiping together. All our motives seem to be good. But wait, darkness creeps in the moment there is no light. Without our knowing it our motives are switched, unknowingly we are now off to our function because someone will expect to see us there. Maybe we go, not because we particularly wanted to this week, but because we always do or because our spouse is set on it. A million other motives creep in and spoil a once pure intention.
The Pharisees were demonstrating this perfectly. They may have thought that they were merely pointing out that someone wasn´t approaching God right. But Jesus saw what was going on inside. He exposed the fact that these people had lost their way. He looked into their hearts, way behind their religious front and found little or no God in their intentions. This is what Jesus was attacking and this is what He would show us too.
It is high time we came to Jesus for Him to use His X-ray eyes. We could each use a good check-up. There may be activity going on in our hearts that we fail to see. We might want to schedule appointments with Him often. It is possible that what we are so sure about being devoted to God, has somehow twisted around on us. He might see something we miss. Why don´t we find out?
The sooner we realize that we are constantly in danger of attack, the sooner we can go to Jesus for some healing. Let us make no mistakes; the Hypocrites of this story are not merely those teachers of the law and Pharisees. We too play our part each and every day. And Jesus words are a strong reminder to us to stop, have our check-up and then proceed in His footsteps to find our Way back to the Father. We do not want His rebuke to fall on us to say that our faith is only “Lip Deep.” We cannot afford to have Him say about us, that our teachings are merely human rules!
Dear Jesus, we come to You. We lay down our pride and bring our hearts for You to examine. Please show us anything You may see in our hearts that does not honor God. Perhaps there are things that we think we are offering up under good intentions, but somehow have been twisted around. Please show us what You find, then help us to turn every intention once again to You. Make our faith much deeper than our lips. Purify us in the deepest part of our soul, and teach us to honor You with our whole hearts.
Amen
Searching For Christ 
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