# 430 - Today's Living Word comes from Mr 7:1,2 “Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.”
Jesus had been staying away from Jerusalem, but the Jewish rulers had been keeping an eye on Him and His ministry and now they felt they had found something to discredit Him and His popular ministry, so they come to Him with their accusation.
They felt He was a false teacher and not a true follower of God, and their proof? His disciples did not wash their hands according to the Jewish tradition. Can you see God on Judgment Day, like a mother examining her child's hands before supper time, checking for dirt under your fingernails before He lets you into heaven? “Sorry, you can't come in here. You didn't wash your hands.”
It seems laughable But I wonder how many times we have done the same thing because of our own traditions? We are wary of how large and popular that church down the street has grown. They don't do things the way “we've always done them,” and so we often seek to find fault with them, trying to discredit and disqualify them just as the Pharisees sought to discredit Jesus.
There is nothing wrong with traditions, every congregation has them, but when they become part of a checklist for salvation, a line has been crossed. In Rom 14:20a we read, “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.” We could say, “for the sake of tradition,” and not lose the meaning of this passage.
Learn from this! Don't check salvation credentials of others against your traditions, check them with the Word of God!
I'm Duane Matz and that's Today's Living Word
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