The condition of Your Heart Matters for True Worship

Matthew 15:10-20

Jesus called the multitude to Him and told them to hear and understand (v.10); it’s not what goes into a man’s mouth that defiles him. It’s what comes out of his mouth that defiles him (v.11). This conversation (vv. 1-7) resulted from Jesus’ rebuke of the Scribes and the Pharisees. They asked Him why His disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders by not washing their hands before eating. Jesus answered by asking them why they broke God’s commandments for the sake of keeping man’s traditions, making God’s commandments of no effect.  He called these religious leaders hypocrites for Isaiah’s prophecy said that “these people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach the commandments of men as doctrines” (vv. 8-9; Isaiah 29:13).

After Jesus addressed the crowd, His disciples came to Him and asked, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” (v. 12) Jesus told His disciples to leave them alone. Our heavenly Father will root up every plant which He has not planted. The leaders were blind, leading the blind because they did not know the Gospel truth. Jesus told them that if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch (vv. 13-14). How impossible it is for the blind to lead others that are blind! We need spiritual leaders that have been planted by God and know His truth. Then they can lead us from spiritual blindness.

Peter asked Jesus to explain this parable to them (v. 15). Apparently His disciples didn’t understand what He told the Scribes and the Pharisees in verse eleven. Therefore, He rebuked His disciples, “Are you also still without understanding (v. 16)? Don’t you yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated (v. 17)? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man (v. 18). For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies (v. 19). These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man” (v. 20).

Give God glory today for a heart prepared for true worship!