Sunday Reading: Matthew 15:1-6
Key Verse: Matthew 15:5
5 But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever you would gain from me, It is a gift to God;
Devotion:
When Jesus said that we should care for others He did not mean that we have to qualify just how much we are going to care but instead commanded us to love our enemies as we love ourselves. That in itself can be a very hard thing to do when faced with some of the people that we know. But there are also the people that are closer to us that we do often forget about – our families and close friends. Just how much do we forget about them?
You may well be saying that you never forget about your friends and family because they are constantly in your thoughts – well that may be so but have you ever studied just how much you do care about them? As we see here, religions do tend to tear us away from God’s Word because of the traditions and desires of men of the religion rather than the desires of our Lord and Saviour. The key factor here is to make sure that we do follow Christ and the Word of God rather than man’s desires!
Jesus gave an excellent example of how man’s words had corrupted God’s Word. The scribe had been teaching that everything was a gift of God. They then extended that to say that the love that a child has for their parents is a gift of God. That then got turned around somewhere along the line and we find them teaching that instead of children honouring their parents, parents should accept what they can get from their children because it is a gift of God. Whilst that may make sense from one point of view it is certainly not upholding God’s commandments in the beginning. Take God’s Word first of all!
Points to Ponder:
How much do you care?
Are you making sure God’s commandments come first?