God's people must be different

Mark 7:1-16

God‘s people should not do all the same things that other people do. They must be different. God gave his law to teach people how they should do that.

The first leaders of the Pharisees also wanted to teach people that they should be different. So those leaders made rules. And the Pharisees were careful to obey those rules.

For example, they had to wash before a meal. They were already clean, but they washed again because of the rule. The Jews all did this. So the Pharisees were surprised when Jesus‘ disciples did not do it.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they must always obey God. That is more important than any rules are. Men made those rules. So the Pharisees did not need to obey those rules. But they must always obey God‘s law.

Jesus gave an example to the Pharisees. God has said that a person must help his parents. But the Pharisees had another rule. A person did not have to help his parents if he gave a gift to God instead. Jesus did not agree.

Jesus told the people that they should think about his words. The Pharisees had many rules about food. But food is only something that goes into a person‘s body. And God teaches that other things matter very much. They are the bad things that people do. They start as ideas. But they do not stay in a person‘s mind. They come out of it. And then they cause trouble for other people. God‘s law is against those things.

Verses 17-23

The disciples wanted Jesus to explain the words that he had spoken to the Pharisees.

God has given many kinds of food that people can eat. All these foods are good, because they are all from God. But God‘s rules said that the Jews should only eat certain kinds of food. Those rules made the Jews different from other people.

God gave those rules to teach an important lesson to his people. The Pharisees knew the rules, but they had not yet understood that lesson. So Jesus explained the lesson to his disciples.

Jesus said that food passes through the body. If a person is well, his body is able to take the good part out of the food. The body itself cleans the food. God made the body so that it would do this.

But other things happen during people‘s lives that God does not want. People do very many wrong things. Jesus gave a long list of those things. They always start as ideas in a person‘s mind. In the end, they usually cause troubles for other people. They are all against God‘s law.

God‘s people should obey him. That is how God wants his people to be different.