Faith & Love: A One Year Bible Reading Plan - Part 3Sample

Today’s chapter is Mark 7. It starts with Jesus addressing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They teach strict adherence to the law – yet Jesus reprimands them for honouring God with their lips – but not their hearts.

Mark 7:6-9: "These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

Jesus emphasizes the importance of honouring God’s commands over human traditions. How easy it is for us to default back to the keeping of human traditions, mindlessly following rules and rituals, an inferior reference of living. Sometimes we can even keep up external appearances, living in pretence while our internal condition is a far cry from that. Jesus consistently invites us to live a life of love and honour Him with our hearts - to abide in Christ – to be responsive to His Word. We should be living from the inside out – imitating Him – and keeping in step with the Holy Spirit.

May I challenge you today?

1. Consider a possible area in your life where you have fallen back into a mindless following of human tradition instead of following Jesus? Or perhaps setting human tradition above God’s Word?

2. How can you follow Him from your heart? Holding on to the Word and aligning your life with the prompting of the Holy Spirit?