Mark 7:9 - Forerunner Commentary

Mark 7:9

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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Mark 7:9:

Mark 7:6-9
Excerpted from: Looking Back to the Future

Sometimes we are misled by an honest translation. The interpreters who came out with the King James version, and also the New King James version and many others besides, chose to interpret a Greek word here as hypocrites. I am not saying that is wrong, but more modern translations say that there is an English word that better fits what they feel that Jesus meant. Although hypocrites is not entirely wrong, it does not give as good as a picture, they feel, of what He intended.

The word that they use is the word casuists; the scribes and the Pharisees were casuists. It is not a word that we normally use any more in the English language. A casuist is a person who has difficulty separating. Another way—to make it more clear—would be: a casuist is a person who strains at gnats and swallows camels. A casuist is a person who is rigid and inflexible. A casuist is a person who has to have a rule for everything. A casuist is a person who has very great difficulty with the spirit of the law. A casuist is a person who will argue incessantly over the etymology of a word, and he will miss the intent of what is said.

That is what Jesus was talking about here. These people were casuists—they missed the point. Were they were keeping the Feast? Yes, they were. But they rejected the commandments in the way that they did it. The Feast became to them a formalized, ritualistic system by which, if they adhered to exactly what the letter of the law said, then they could feel free and right before God.

Mark 7:9
Excerpted from: Passover (Part 3)

They were ignorant of God's righteousness. Righteousness simply means "right doing; rectitude." According to Psalm 119:172, righteousness is defined as the commandments of God. That is right doing! So we see here that, by definition, these people did not know of God's right doing—God's right way, God's right method, God's commandments. We see that confirmed in Mark 7, where Jesus said:

He said that about the Jews. The Jews went about and they established their own standard, their own forms of righteousness, and their own religion—called today "Judaism" (called in the King James Bible "the Jews' religion"). The Jews' religion was not the religion of God. It had bits and pieces and parts of it; but it did not exemplify the right and the true way of God at all.

That is why there is so much disagreement between Christ and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. There they were—the religious leaders—representing the way of Judaism, and Christ called them into account for the things that they were doing.

Articles

Christmas, Syncretism and Presumption (1994)  (2)
Christmas, Syncretism, and Presumption  (4)
Cogitations on Christmas
Cogitations on Christmas
Cogitations on Christmas
Cogitations on Christmas
Cogitations on Christmas
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Ten): Paradox
Preparing for the Feast
Presumption and Divine Justice
Purge Me With Hyssop
The Nation of Israel—Biblical Israel? (Part Two)
The Second Commandment (1997)
The Sovereignty of God: Introduction
Unity and Division: The Blessing and the Curse (Part Four)
Was Paul a False Apostle?
Who Fulfills the Azazel Goat— Satan or Christ? (Part Five)  (2)

Bible Studies

Clean and Unclean Meats
Pagan Holidays
The Fifth Commandment

Essays

Keeping Godly Traditions (Part One)
Keeping Godly Traditions (Part One)
Pharaoh's Magicians Return
Spirit and Truth
What's Wrong With Works?

Sermons

Extremes of Idolatry
Appointments
Truth-Based Worship Vs Spiritual Confusion
Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen (Part Five)
Back to Life (Part Four)
Lessons From Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim
Prove Yourself A Man!
The Epistles of II and III John (Part One)
Hosea's Prophecy (Part One)
Liberalism and Education (Part Three)
Seeking God's Will (Part One): Holiness
What's Wrong With Christmas?
Sincerity Without Truth Is Worthless
Eating Out on the Sabbath
Tithing: 'Try Me Now!' (Part Two)
The Commandments (Part Three)
Easter: Origins and Implications
Conditioned Response
The Sovereignty of God (Part One)
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part 28)
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part 6)
Values and Conversion
Love and Works
Counting to Pentecost: A Simple Approach
Titus (Part Three): Rebuking False Teachers

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