Matthew 15

Bible Passage: Matthew 15

The Problem With Men

Men have been a problem to many things.

From the environmental pollution to the moral decay of the modern society, are all being brought about by human perceptions and selfishness.

There is a Chinese idiom that goes, “人不为己，天诛地灭”， which means if a person is not concerned about himself, heaven and earth would have been destroyed.

I agree that men is often selfish, and would always do things that suit their taste/likings; and in doing things that can only benefit them, things that they find easy to do, or maybe have been acustomed to do.

During our recent door-to-door evangelism, we came across a lady, who is a Christian; she said that only a close relationship with Jesus is all that matters, and other things are just man-made rules.

What she meant by man-made rules are the doctrines found in the Bible, and I realised that what she wants to believe is what she personally feels is good and right, regardless what the Bible says, especially the doctrines, for they are restrictive and cause divisions among Christians.

But, we have been reminded,

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding.”

Proverbs 3:5

And also,

Take heed to yourself, and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you

will save both yourself, and those who hear you.

1 Timothy 4:16

In this chapter, the problem with the Pharisees was that they held on to the traditions of the elders rather than holding on to the commandments of God.

They might have felt that in holding on to the traditions of the elders were safer, because they won’t run contrary to the majority’s custom and thus incuring wrath from the Jews, especially the Pharisaic sect; and being a Pharisee has a lot to gain from man, i.e. fear and applause.

The Pharisees, due to their pride, couldn’t perceive God’s Sovereignty in all things, so they didn’t think much of investigating into these traditions of the elders, to see if they had actually been placed over and above the sovereignty of God’s commandments.

Today, whether the concepts we have in our lives of faith or in the things we do in church, have we also held on to and practicing something that we have been so acustomed to that we didn’t think much about whether have we gone against the unchanging Word of God?

Let us all ponder and be vigilant in all that we want to hold as our life principles, and all that we have to do, for we must not forget, “This is my Father’s world”.

The Mercy And Power Of God

The Canaanite woman was being praised by our Lord for her faith in God’s mercy and power, and indeed her faith and trust is worth our emulation.

For a Canaanite woman to trust in a Jew was unthinkable in those days, for the Jews always despised Gentiles.

After Jesus healed the Canaanite woman’s daughter, He continued to teach the people and also healed many with sicknesses and those who were demon posessed.

And then He also fed the 4000 men with only 7 loaves of bread and afew small fish.

What can we gather from all these that our Lord had done?

I believe we can see there is no partially in our Lord’s eyes. He is All Powerful and great in His mercies. He is not only mindful of our spiritual needs, but He is also empathetic with our physical needs.

As followers of Christ, we must follow after the examples of our Lord, to show no partiality but love to others in our daily dealings.

We definitely have no power to heal people of their infirmities, but we can bring people who need spiritual and physical nourishments to our Almighty Lord and God.

May God guide us.

Shalom!