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Seed Though ts From St. Mark B y R ev . W ilfred M. H opkins CHAPTER VII.
S EFILED, THAT IS UNWASHEN (Greek, “common”) -—Hands as they were after common use—it does not a not necessarily mean dirty hands; there was a ritual m basis for the rule and a feeling of separation between the common and the sacred. THEY FOUND FAULT —It is so easy to find fault with better men than our selves, when they differ from us in non-essential things, and to fail to discern which are the non-essentials and which are the fundamentals. 3—WASH DILIGENTLY—Or “up to the elbows” (literally, “with the fist”). HOLDING THE TRADITION OF THE ELDERS—Church traditions and rules, being merely human, need a good deal of circumspection if they are not to become snares. Note, it was only the hands they washed; a partial cleansing: we are to have the whole bodv purified (cf. Heb. 10 : 22 ) . 4—WASHING OF CUPS, POTS, etc.—The idea was that the common life and its affairs were defiling, a very usual notion even today, but an utterly mistaken one; to the Christian all things should be sacred. 6—HYPOCRITES—The Greek word 'hupokritees means a play actor, one who plays a part intentionally. To be a hypo crite one must know that he is not what he pretends to be. “None but God has any right to call a man a hypocrite,” for no one else can really tell whether he is intentionally playing a part. HONOUR ME WITH THEIR LIPS—This is the inevitable tendency of a merely external religion founded on human tra dition. 7—VAINLY DO THEY WORSHIP—Because their hearts are far distant; true worship is not mechanical, but spiritual (cf. John 4:24), for worship is not posture or psalm-singing or ceremony, but the yielding of the affection and the will to Christ as the dog does to his master. (The New Testament word for worship means “to act like a dog.”) TEACHING FOR DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN—The regular practice of the mere ritualist of all ages; now, alas, the practice of the so-called “Modernist” as well. For doctrine the Bible should be our sole guide (cf. Isa. 8 :20). Ritual would matter but little either way if it were not for the false teaching that is behind it, though its tendency is to center the worshiper’s thought upon externals. 8—LAYING ASIDE THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD —Another almost universal tendency of the mere ritualist—to him ritual is everything, too often, the commandment compara tively nothing. 9—YE FRUSTRATE THE COMMANDMENT—Compare the modern teaching so common as to the Sabbath Day, namely, that you may do as you like on it after an early service, thus frustrating God’s purposes for man of rest and worship. 10—MOSES SAID—The divine testimony to the Authorship of Exodus and Deuteronomy; if He was in error as to this, how are we to trust Him in matters more important far? [Cf. Matt. IS :4. This disposes of the suggestion that the Mosaic Law was the invention of Moses, and establishes its divine origin.] WHOSO RAILETH AT FATHER OR MOTHER—There was to be reverence of lip, as well as obedience of life. The word also means to speak evil of; they were to be neither dishonored nor brought into dishonor; a fact very grievously ignored in these modern days! DIE THE DEATH—So serious was the offense, the reason being, of course, that parents are God’s vice regents upon earth, and to dishonor them is to flout Him—the
consequences of which are eternal death. 11— YE SAY—Almost all our spiritual ills, and many others, come to us because men dare to say something in opposition to the Word of God; when He has spoken, we have no right to “say”—obedience is all that is left for us. CORBAN— A gift, or given; i.e., to God—intimating that it was set apart for the temple service. 12— YE NO LONGER SUFFER HIM TO DO ANY THING—In itself this was wrong, since it was putting sacrifice in the place of obedience, and religious offerings in the place of common duty (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22; Matt. 23:23); but often it was a piece of greedy hypocrisy, since the man was not bound actually to pay over the thing thus dedicated. 13— SETTING ASIDE THE WORD OF GOD BY YOUR TRADITION—The precise error of the present-day Modern ism, and so making His commandments void. Sad that this should be done in each case by professedly religious teachers! MANY SIMILAR THINGS YE DO—The setting aside of God’s Word leads, not to' one error, but to many; nay, it is the root and original cause of all ill doing and ill thinking of every kind. 14— HEARKEN UNTO ME—As though he would say: “Do not listen to the Pharisees, in such matters, but to me.” Yet they were the religious leaders of the day. We are to accept the teaching even of the regular religious Rabbi only as it coin cides with His. 15— THERE IS NOTHING WITHOUT THE MAN WHICH, ENTERING IN, IS ABLE TO DEFILE—A word that should guard us against certain forms of fanaticism. The excessive use of something may produce defilement, but no ex ternal thing is in itself defiling. BUT THOSE COMING OUT OF HIM (cf. vs. 21, 22)—Real defilement is not physical, but spiritual. You can injure, but you cannot “defile” the body; it is already “of the earth, earthy” and more or less corrupt in itself. [1 Cor. 3 :17 should read: “If any man destroy the tem ple of God,” i.e., his body. We may destroy it, but we cannot defile it.] 16— IF ANY MAN HAVE EARS, etc.—All men have not the hearing ear (cf. Jer. 6:10). We need to pray that He who opened deaf ears on earth would give us ears to hear (cf. Isa. 35:5) ; this surely does not refer only to physical ears, which do not suffice for the true hearing of the Word of God. 18—ARE YE ALSO WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING? —They had privileges which the crowd had not, for they had been with Him ; yet they had not profited, for the Holy Ghost had not yet been given. He alone enables us to understand Christ’s teaching. 21—OUT OF THE HEART—The heart here means the will, the purpose, the desire; i.e., the intellectual part of the man. This, which has been debased by sin as a consequence of Adam’s fall, is the true source of defilement. Outward and physical dirt is compatible with inward purity, and vice versa. Note there are twelve forms of evil mentioned here; six active (all of them in the plural number in the Greek, as being oft re peated) and six dispositional; but they are all summed up as pro ceeding from, and included in, evil thoughts (cf. Prov. 23:7). We may well pray that He would cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. EVIL THOUGHTS —The Greek word signifies “to consider” or “calculate” ; it is the entertained (not the involuntary) thought of evil which pro duces defiling things.
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