The Best Motive You Can Have

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: The Best Motive You Can Have ------------------- Date: 3/15/2003
Keywords: “behavior” “commandment” “motive” “tradition”
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Passage: Mark 7:1-8*

1. Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,

2. they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

3. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;

4. and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)

5. So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?"

6. He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
'This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;

7. in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.'

8. You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

Questions

1. How do you decide what is right and what is wrong?

 

2. When you think back on big decisions you have made in your life, who was your most influential person? Was it you, a parent, a teacher, or someone else?

 

Practical help

You might be looking at porn because you believe you have the right to do so.

You might be resisting looking at porn because you feel intense shame and guilt.

You might tell others not to look at porn because you believe it is wrong to do so.

You might tell others to go ahead and look at porn because no one has the right to tell you what to do.

What do all of the above motivations have in common? They are all based on man's opinion.

Jesus was teaching the religious leaders in today's passage that human opinions or traditions are not acceptable motivations for behavior. The truly moral person will seek what God commands and live life accordingly. Does that make sense to you?

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*"New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved."