SS01-22-06
MATTHEW 15: 16-20; PROVERBS 6:16-19; 4: 23-27.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO MATTHEW 15: 16-20.
In the last presidential election, the character of a candidate played an important role in people deciding for whom to vote. The nation had been reeling from the headline news of corporate scandals, insider trading, and accusations of crimes by people in both the entertainment and sports arena.
Some of those involved have come to trial. Political candidates for whom character mattered strongly openly admitted that fact. However, some people believed that skill and experience in leadership were more important than character. The exposure of some corporate and political leaders has caused many persons to consider his or her own character. Some conclude that expediency and not character is the most important thing. This lesson considers how God looks at character.
The Life Impact of this lesson is designed to help us develop a right perspective regarding things that matter by recognizing that character grows out of the condition of the heart---including its attitudes and desires and determining ways to align our hearts according to God’s values.
People have come to wonder if a person’s character really matters, in particular if their own character matters. Both the Old and New Testament----through the inspired writings of the Book of Proverbs and inspired teachings of Jesus----affirm that one’s character is vitally important and that a person should vigilantly guard his or her heart.
The word heart is crucial to the study of character in the Bible. “With us, heart is used of the physical organ and as a way of referring to the emotions, but we must not read that way of understanding the term back into Scripture. There it stands for the whole of our inner state, thoughts and will as well as emotions.”
What does the Bible teach about the heart? For one thing, the heart is sinful. The people of Noah’s day were described in Gen.6: 5 like this; “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Jeremiah wrote in Jer. 17: 9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Paul wrote about humanity’s choice of sin in Rom. 1: 21, “Their foolish heart was darkened.” Some people tried to solve the moral problem of morality by external ceremonies. Jesus taught in Matt. 15:19 that these superficial things do not deal with the source of sin---the human heart.” Keeping outward commandments does not get to the inner issue.
The Bible also says in 1 Sam. 16:7 “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” The good news in Ezekiel 36:26 is that God promised to give repentant sinners a new heart. Rom. 10: 9-10 says Salvation comes to those who believe in their heart in the Lord Jesus.” Eph. 3: 17 says, that “Christ comes to abide within the heart of believers.” Prov. 4: 23 says, “People of faith must guard the heart,” “for out of it are the issues of life.”
In Matt. 14:34 Jesus was in Gennesaret, a town located on the western shore of Galilee, south of Capernaum. Some Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and in Matt. 15: 34 questioned Him about His disciples breaking the tradition of their elders concerning washing their hands ceremonially before eating.
This oral law was regarded by the Pharisees, as having equal authority with the written law. It was codified in the 2nd century as the Mishnah. One of its treatises covers the details of hand washing, such as how much water to be used.
Jesus immediately took the offensive against the religious leaders and asked why they continued to break the direct command of God to honor their father and mother, by pledging their possessions to the temple upon their death. That practice called corban prevented them from taking care of their parents in their old age. Such action was condemned by Jesus as being hypocritical.
The term “tradition of the elders” refers to the opinions and teachings that had come down through the years as commentary on O.T. Scriptures. To many Jews these traditions had become more important than the Scriptures. The Pharisees sought to obey every one of these teachings. They were the “heavy loads” Jesus referred to when He denounced the scribes and Pharisees for their teachings in Matt. 23: 4.
In Matt. 15: 10 Jesus addressed the crowd that gathered around Him. Whereas the Jewish leaders had charged Jesus and His disciples with defilement by breaking one of the rules of the traditions of the elders. Jesus declared that defilement comes from a person’s heart and not from what a person puts into his mouth. In Matt. 10:11 Jesus effectively denounced the importance and place that the traditions of the elders held over the Jewish people
In vs. 14 Jesus charged the Pharisees with being blind guides leading blind people into a pit through their teachings. In vs. 15 Peter asked Jesus to explain what He meant by the parable. Let’s read the reply Jesus gave in Matt. 15: 16-20.
PLEASE READ MATTHEW 15: 16-20.
In these verses Jesus charged His disciples with continuing to be lacking in understanding. He had taught about the kingdom of heaven through a number of parables (see Matt. 13 for at least 7 parables). Understanding refers to “perception.” Jesus explained many of the parables to His disciples later. However, they were still “dull” or slow to understand the spiritual nature and principles of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus expected them to use their minds and seek the Holy Spirit’s wisdom to give them insight into the things of God.
Jesus proceeded to explain what He meant by His statement in vs. 11 about the defilement coming from within, not from without. The tradition of the elders concerning becoming defiled by failing to wash one’s hands ceremonially before eating was an illustration of something done outside the body that they contended produced defilement within the body.
The word realize means “to comprehend” or “to understand” and implies the process of comprehending something on the basis of careful thought and consideration. Things taken through the mouth pass into the stomach and then are eliminated from the body. They do not make a person unclean or clean ceremonially. External things are not the source of what makes a person right or wrong before God.
On the other hand, what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and …defiles a person. The word heart refers to the inner nature. People’s words reveal the thoughts of their hearts and thus their character. If their hearts harbor evil and immoral thoughts, their minds think of them, and their mouth’s will express them. A person is as he thinks in his heart. Prov. 23: 7 says, “as he thinks within himself (“in his heart,”), so he is. Evil enters through the eye and the ear, not through the mouth.
Defiles means “to make common,” “to render unholy,” or “to render unclean.” Since a person is to be Holy before God, that person must be careful not to make himself or herself common or unholy. True defilement comes from the heart, not from external, man-made rules concerning eating or anything else.
The heart is the source of all kinds of evil. The word heart refers to the whole person: mind, emotion, and will. A person’s heart is his or her character. Before people are saved, their hearts are depraved. The prophet Jeremiah declared in Jer. 17: 9 “The heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick—who can understand it?” God looks on the heart. What He sees there causes a person to be right with Him or wrong with Him.
Jesus mentioned seven kinds of things that come from the hearts. The number seven shows these are representative things. Since they come from the heart, they represent the real person.
MURDERS, ADULTERIES, SEXUAL IMMORALITIES, THEFTS are self explanatory. Note how these relate to the sixth through the ninth commandments in the Ten Commandments.
One who murders takes another person’s life. To commit adulteries is to take another person’s mate. Sexual immoralities include sexual experiences of any kind except that of consensual sex between a husband and his wife.
Thefts involve taking other people’s things. False testimonies usually refer to lying on the witness stand or to giving false information in any legal or social situation. Blasphemies are words spoken against God or another person (“slander,” “speaking evil of others,” or “cussing.”
Jesus listed things in vs. 19 that begin as thoughts in a person’s mind and then become actions through the body. Those are the things that defile a person, not failing to observe some man-made, external ritual, such as ceremonial hand-washing before eating. Jesus was not denying that there are health related matters concerning what a person eats or drinks. He was speaking only against the belief of the tradition of the elders that required ceremonial hand-washing and claimed it was essential to keeping the food from defiling a person. He was emphasizing that character matters, because character determines our actions. People need to understand that character stems from the heart. That is the place to begin in allowing God to build a Christian character.
Some people define character in terms of external religious activities. Jesus taught that the human heart is the source of sin. Thus the cure must begin with a new heart in which Christ dwells. A new heart leads to a transformed life.
Vs. 20 ties together the teaching of Jesus and its contrast to the religion of the Pharisees. True religion and good character are not the result of external rules or rituals. Good character, there fore, cannot be equated with any of the religious activities in which we engage. Since sin is internal before it becomes external, even so character must grow out of an inner change that leads to a transformed life.
There are several implications of Jesus’ teaching. Mark stated one in Mark 7: 19: “as a result, He made all foods clean.” Jesus’ rejection of the hand washing tradition was tantamount to abolishing the ban on unclean foods and so called unclean people. This is what God revealed to Peter in Acts 10 related to his experience with Cornelius.
PLEASE TURN TO PROVERBS 6: 16-19.
PLEASE READ PROVERBS 6: 16-19.
The book of Proverbs is designed to provide practical guidance for everyday living. The early chapters are wise things that fathers and teachers told young people about how to live. Thus good character was the book’s goal. It has warnings about sins and admonitions to the good life. Most of the book is a series of short pithy sayings called proverbs.
Prov. 6: 16-19 is a list of things the Lord hates. Hate is a strong word, especially when used of the Lord. But it is a basic biblical teaching concerning the wrath of God. God loves people, but He hates sin. Someone has said that God hates sin for the same reason mothers hate war. Just as war kills or cripples their sons, so sin spreads its destructive power to those hurt by sin, including the sinners themselves.
Many in our society have abandoned any belief in moral absolutes. They have exchanged this biblical view for a view that says each person makes his or her own moral rules. Moral relativism has a strong hold in the confused minds of many who reject biblical authority. Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, did not believe in moral relativism. He believed that some things are always wrong.
The form of vs. 16 may be unfamiliar to modern readers. Why not just say that there are seven things the Lord hates? Keep in mind that Proverbs is one of the poetic books of the Hebrews. Parallelism is a characteristic of Hebrew poetry. This involves making a point twice. Thus the first part says, “These six things doth the Lord hate.”
The second line makes the same basic point, but refers to seven things that are an abomination unto Him. Hate and abomination refer to the same feelings of God about sin. Solomon mentioned six sins: then he mentioned seven. This was one way of saying that he was naming only a sample of many sins he might name. The same applies to Prov. 6: 16. Solomon listed seven things the Lord hates, but he could have named more. These are only representative of their sins, but the inclusion of these seven shows that they are especially heinous to God.
In each of the first five members of the list, some body part is associated with a particular type of sin. More specifically, the body parts that act out certain sins (e.g. hands that shed blood) represent the distorted personalities behind such actions…The person whose eyes, hands, or feet carry out such deeds has a twisted soul and thus grossly corrupts the image of God that should be recognizable in every human. The sequence of these body parts moves from the eyes downward to the tongue, the hands, the heart, and the feet.
The first thing in the list of things the Lord hates is a proud look (arrogant or haughty eyes).
When people came into the presence of royalty, they were expected to keep their eyes down: only a haughty person would look up until given permission.
In Jesus parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18: 13, the humble tax collector “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven.”
It is no coincidence that the first Beatitude in Matt. 5:3 is “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Pride is a basic human sin. Humans believe they don’t need God and that they are better than others. Humility is the positive character trait that stands over against pride. In 1 Peter 5:5 “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
The second sin in the list is a lying tongue. Lying undermines any kind of relationship, from the intimae relationship of marriage to the business contacts of customers and salesperson. When you cannot trust the truthfulness of what someone says, there is no basis for the relationship.
Rev. 21:8 lists some of the categories of sinners excluded from heaven, and along with the worst kinds of evil persons are listed “all liars.” The opposite of lying is honesty and truth.
Jesus taught in Matt. 5: 37 that people of Christian character let their yes mean yes and their no mean no. Paul wrote in Eph. 4: 25 “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.”
The third sin is descried as hands that shed innocent blood. This heinous sin is soundly condemned. Abel was the first victim of this sin of his brother. God warned Cain in Gen. 4: 7-8 that his envy and anger were like a wild animal about to spring: but Cain continued to nurse his evil feelings until one day he murdered his brother, Abel. This was the first of many to follow in his sin of shedding innocent blood.
In Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth and his wife plotted to get the throne by murdering the king. No wonder his wife’s guilty obsession was that she had blood on her hands that she could not remove.
Jezebel plotted to have innocent Naboth killed so her husband could confiscate the vineyard he wanted. In 1 Kings 21 God used Elijah to pronounce their death warrants. The opposite of sin is cleansed hands that are lifted in worship to God and that minister to others in the Lord’s name---worshiping and serving hands. The psalmist said in Ps. 24: 4 that those who enter the house of the Lord must have “clean hands and a pure heart.”
The fourth sin is a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, or a heart that plots wicked schemes. Such a person has no regard for anything but that which might work to his or her advantage. Rules and values are used when it is beneficial to do so, but they are disregarded when they are inconvenient. Such a one is always looking for an edge over everyone else.
The opposite of such a person, according to Matt. 5: 8 is a pure heart. This heart is righteous in action and dedicated completely to the Lord, not to self or evil. This kind of person plans ways to follow the Lord’s leadership.
Elsewhere in Prov. 3:5 Solomon wrote, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
The fifth sin consists of feet that be swift in running to mischief or feet eager to run to evil. The Bible often refers to life as walking or as running. Some walk daily in darkness and sin and run toward evil things and evil people. The Bible often refers to life as walking or as running. Some walk daily in darkness and sin and run toward evil things and evil people.
Others walk with God in His way and run with patience the race that is set before us. Heb. 12:1.
Paul spoke of life in Christ as a race. When he wrote to the Philippians, he wrote in Phil 3:12-14 He had not finished the race, but he was pressing on toward the goal for which God had called him. Those who are running toward evil are like a stampede headed for a precipice; those who are running toward God and good are headed for life eternal.
The sixth sinner that God condemns is a false witness that speaketh lies. This sin combines the sins of lying with the crime of falsely testifying in court. Slander and perjury are not confined to ancient times. The result of this sin is always unjust and unfair. It is usually done to cover a person’s own guilt or because of a bribe. It is one of the sins that killed Naboth and his family. False witnesses also took part in the trial of Jesus. The Ninth Commandment condemns it. The opposite of it is speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4: 15).
The seventh sinner is he that soweth discord among brethren or “one who stirs up trouble among brothers.” This dissension might be in a family, a church, or a community. SUch a person may be driven by many different motives; envy, greed, boredom, or just plain meanness. But the result of the person’s sin is often devastating. Marriages are broken up. Churches fight among themselves. Communities are sharply divided. The opposite of this according to Matt. 5: 9 is becoming a peacemaker.
Thus, by looking at the opposites of the sins listed in this passage, we can form a composite of godly character; humility, honesty, service, dedication, goodness, truthfulness, and peacemaking.
PLEASE READ PROV. 4: 23-27.
Vs. 20-22 remind us the Book of Proverbs is advice such as fathers gave their sons. The father called his son to listen carefully to his words. The son’s ear should be attentive. He should keep the teachings before his eyes and in his heart, because this is the way to life and health.
Notice the use of body parts: ear, eyes, and heart. This figurative use of body parts continues in vs. 23-27: heart…mouth…lips…eyes…eyelids…feet…hand. Keep in mind that although we studied 6: 16-19 before 4: 23-27, the latter passage appears first in the book.
The heart is the focus here, as in Matt. 15: 16-20. This passage assumes the evil heart has been cleansed and made new. Solomon urged, Keep they heart. This is often translated, “Guard your heart.” This vigilant guarding must be done with all diligence or “above all else.”
Priority must be given to guarding the heart. The reason for this is because out of it are the issues of life. All of life’s important decisions come from the heart. “It is the source of life.” Attacks on the heart strike at the very center of life and well-being.
Vs. 24 uses the mouth and lips to indicate the first way to guard the heart. Jesus said that the heart was the source of evil that came from the mouth. If we would guard the heart, we must give attention to what comes out of the mouth.---Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
The two qualities to be avoided are translated as speaking “dishonestly” and “deviously, or by “perversity” and “corrupt talk.” Another translation of this verse is: “Keep your mouth from crooked speech and your lips from deceitful talks.”
The admonition in vs. 24 calls for straight talk that reveals facts and truth, not some distorted version of those facts or truths. This vs. has bearing on the practice of putting a “spin” on some event or reports such as managed news during a war.
How many sins of the tongue can you name? These are among the most common sins, even among church people. What we say reveals the kind of heart we have. If filth, profanity, lying cursing and gossip flow out of our mouths, something is wrong inside our hearts. This is a sign that the heart is not being guarded well.
What about the eyes and eyelids? The latter is translated “gaze” in newer versions of the Bible. The military command “eyes front” is given to God’s people. On either side are sights that attract our gaze, but we need to keep our eyes on the goal, just as a runner looks at the finish line. If the runner begins to let his concentration be attracted by something on the side, someone else will win the race. This surely is true in the race of life.
Paul wrote in Phil. 3: 13-14, “Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised y God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”
What about the
feet? “Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your
ways will be established. Don’t turn to the right or to the left;
keep your feet away from evil.”
If you were walking over rough
and rocky ground, you would be careful to pay attention to where you
put your feet. At the same time you would need to look where you are
going. These two aspects of hiking are both important in the
Christian walk. We must be careful where we walk and we must keep
moving forward.
After choosing the best path, remove all obstacles possible from it and don’t put any obstacle on that path to hinder your walking on it. And the God who dictates the path to walk also declares a marvelous promise to those who walk it---“all your ways will be established.” The word established emphasizes something that is solid and unmovable. From this certainty comes a deep sense of assurance and confidence.
But seeking to live by God’s way requires effort or work on our part to discover it, to keep walking in it, and to exercise the discipline needed to resist temptations to turn back or deviate from it. The father told his son, Don’t turn to the right or to the left. Such turns would always be possibilities and often temptations.
God’s people must keep their eye looking forward and thus recognize the evil they will encounter. They must keep their feet away from evil instead of coming as close to it as possible. Believers usually know what is dangerous to them and for what they need to be on the lookout.
Isaiah 40: 31 makes this promise: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” On some days, God enables us to soar: on others He helps us run. But on most days He enables us to keep walking.
The Bible often contrasts the two opposing ways of life---God’s way and the world’s way. We are like pilgrims on the narrow way that leads to life. This is the life of Christian character. Such character is the result of decisions made and habits formed.
Do believers have to guard their hearts, discipline their mouths, focus their eyes, and direct their feet in their own wisdom and strength? No! Human efforts alone will not transform one’s life and cultivate a godly character. Only God can transform a heart. God’s Spirit will lead the sincere and seeking believer in the paths of righteousness.
God shows us where we need to practice self-control and discipline through His Word and by His commandments. God empowers us to practice that self-control when we seek Him and trust Him for His power.
Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit:
Sow a habit, and you reap a character:
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
The lasting lessons in Prov. 4: 23-27 are:
1. The heart is the source of who and what we are. 2. We should guard a cleansed heart against evil intrusions.
3. We must watch what we say, for words reveal the heart.
4. We should walk in God’s way, not looking to other ways.
NEXT SUNDAY, JAN. 29, 2006, WE CONCLUDE OUR STUDY OF “THINGS THAT MATTER” BY LOOKING AT “SEXUAL PURITY MATTERS.” A.V. DAUGHERTY