Read Matthew 15:1-11

Have you ever heard the term “lip service”? According to the dictionary, it’s “verbal but insincere expression of agreement or support; advocacy or allegiance expressed in words but not backed by deeds.” It’s insincere, fake, and empty. To call a spade a spade, it’s a straight-up lie!

In this first part of Matthew 15, we see Jesus called out by the Pharisees because His disciples broke “the tradition of the elders” by not washing their hands before they eat. To be clear, this wasn’t something done for hygiene; this was about ceremonial purity. Get this: One rabbi actually claimed that eating with unwashed hands was akin to laying with a prostitute.

Something else to note: This practice wasn’t prescribed by Scripture; it wasn’t part of the Mosaic law. These were additional traditions the Pharisees imposed upon the people. It’s almost as if they were saying that God’s law wasn’t good enough or strict enough and they needed to improve it by taking that which was internal in nature and making it all about the external practice and appearance.

Can you imagine what the Pharisees were thinking here? “We trapped Him this time! We’re going to make Him look bad and expose Him as a fraud!” So, they were probably caught completely off guard when Jesus responded with this haymaker: “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?”

He pointed out that what they’re actually doing is deceiving people into breaking the commandments of God in favor of extra-biblical and unbiblical traditions! And then He summarizes their entire practice of religion by saying, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

So, what can we glean from this interaction? Way too often, we major in the minors while ignoring the major things that are essential, beneficial, and life giving in our walk with Jesus. We deemphasize that which works from the inside out and transforms the heart because we’re so concerned with external appearances of holiness and tradition. Friends, let Jesus’ admonition of the Pharisees here serve as a reminder to us that when the internal is truly fixed on glorifying the Lord, then it will make its way outward to the external, but the same can’t be said about the reverse approach.

1. What stuck out to you about this encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees?
2. What makes the Pharisees’ way of living and approach to God backwards? How does it actually do damage to your walk with Him? How have you seen this to be true in your own life?
3. Why do we become so fixated on traditions, practices, voting habits and political ideologies, philosophies of ministry, and on our way of doing things?

Read Matthew 15:12-20

What does it mean to be clean? In most cases, being clean has to do with the external and physical, except as it pertains to spiritual cleanness.

In this next section, Jesus explains to His disciples why no food we put into our physical bodies can make us spiritually unclean. No food we consume has the power to defile our soul because “it doesn’t go into their heart.” Now, when Jesus says “heart,” He isn’t talking about the physical heart, but our spirit.

Essentially, the things we put into our body don’t cause us to become spiritually unclean. Instead, it’s what’s within us that shows our spiritual uncleanness. You see, we’re not sinners because we sin, we sin because we’re sinners. Within our sinful nature exists “murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Sometimes, these external things reveal the sinfulness within us. Other times, they become the object of our sinful desires, but they’re never the cause of our sin.

What does this mean? It means that it’s our sinful nature in us that produces the desire to consume that which is bad for us (Romans 7:8, 11). It’s the sinful nature in us that causes us to fall into such things as drugs, alcohol, or a porn addiction.

And here’s the thing: The law of God never claimed eating certain animals would make us unclean. Technically, it was saying that certain foods were unclean in the physical sense, so eating certain animals had the potential to make us sick.

The reality is that nothing you eat, drink, put into your body, do, watch, or say can make you spiritually unclean—our sinful nature is what makes us spiritually unclean and produces in us the desire to pursue these things that are not of God. However, while there’s nothing that can make us unclean on the inside, there’s One who can make us clean: Jesus!

When we repent of our sins, receive Jesus into our hearts, surrender our lives to follow Him, believe in Him, and trust Him as our Savior and Lord, He makes us clean by forgiving our sins and dwelling in us. He replaces our sinful nature with the Holy Spirit; He takes that which our defiled hearts and makes them holy. And from that point on, nothing can ever make us spiritually unclean because He, the Lord, has cleansed us with His blood and Spirit.

4. What makes a person unclean? Why was the truth of this concept distorted?
5. How does the external help us identify internal sin struggles? What can we do to overcome such struggles?

This Week

Read the short, six-chapter letter of Galatians today. It’s all about how legalism and lip service actually cut you off from walking in the power of the gospel and the grace of God in your life.

Memory Verse

“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”—Matthew 15:17–20 (NIV)

Prayer Guide

Father, by the power of Your Spirit and the grace of Your Son, I pray You’d cut out anything in my life that actually cuts me off from experiencing Your power, presence, and grace in increasing measure each day. Root out pride, legalism, divisiveness, and self-righteousness so I may walk humbly with You, worship You in spirit and truth, and be transformed from the inside out more and more into the image of Your Son. Thank You for making me clean through Jesus, and I pray that the good work You have begun in me would continue until the day of Christ Jesus; that You would daily work and change me from the inside out so my life would match my faith in You. Amen.

If you have questions you aren’t sure of, please reach out to us at CalvaryFTL.org/Questions.