{"id":701,"date":"2026-02-17T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=701&2026"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:00:13","slug":"making-our-worship-useful-mark-7-1-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/making-our-worship-useful-mark-7-1-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Our Worship Useful: Mark 7:1-23"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Mark 7:1-23 (CEV)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\">\r\n<p><sup>1\u00a0<\/sup>Some Pharisees and several teachers of the Law of Moses from Jerusalem came and gathered around Jesus.  <sup>2\u00a0<\/sup>They noticed that some of his disciples ate without first washing their hands.<\/p> <p><sup>3\u00a0<\/sup>The Pharisees and many other Jewish people obey the teachings of their ancestors. They always wash their hands in the proper way before eating.  <sup>4\u00a0<\/sup>None of them will eat anything they buy in the market until it is washed. They also follow a lot of other teachings, such as washing cups, pitchers, and bowls.<\/p> <p><sup>5\u00a0<\/sup>The Pharisees and teachers asked Jesus, \u201cWhy don\u2019t your disciples obey what our ancestors taught us to do? Why do they eat without washing their hands?\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>6\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus replied:<\/p><p>You are nothing but show-offs! The prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said,<\/p><p>\u201cAll of you praise me<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with your words,<br>but you never really<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0think about me.<br><sup>7\u00a0<\/sup>It is useless for you<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to worship me,<br>when you teach rules<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0made up by humans.\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>8\u00a0<\/sup>You disobey God\u2019s commands in order to obey what humans have taught.  <sup>9\u00a0<\/sup>You are good at rejecting God\u2019s commands so that you can follow your own teachings!  <sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>Didn\u2019t Moses command you to respect your father and mother? Didn\u2019t he tell you to put to death all who curse their parents?  <sup>11\u00a0<\/sup>But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they own has been offered to God.  <sup>12\u00a0<\/sup>You won\u2019t let those people help their parents.  <sup>13\u00a0<\/sup>And you ignore God\u2019s commands in order to follow your own teaching. You do a lot of other things that are just as bad.<\/p> <p><sup>14\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus called the crowd together again and said, \u201cPay attention and try to understand what I mean.  <sup>15-16\u00a0<\/sup>The food that you put into your mouth doesn\u2019t make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.\u201d<\/p> <p><sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>After Jesus and his disciples had left the crowd and had gone into the house, they asked him what these sayings meant.  <sup>18\u00a0<\/sup>He answered, \u201cDon\u2019t you know what I am talking about by now? You surely know that the food you put into your mouth cannot make you unclean.  <sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>It doesn\u2019t go into your heart, but into your stomach, and then out of your body.\u201d By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat.<\/p> <p><sup>20\u00a0<\/sup>Then Jesus said:<\/p><p>What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean.  <sup>21\u00a0<\/sup>Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder,  <sup>22\u00a0<\/sup>unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness.  <sup>23\u00a0<\/sup>All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Mark 7:1-23&amp;version=cev\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Mark 7:1-23<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Part of me wonders if Jesus ever got tired of the Pharisees and other religious leaders challenging Him about things He and His followers did or did not do. While many times, the Pharisees are upset for something that is done that they don\u2019t feel is right, we can learn something powerful in Jesus\u2019 response during one of the times they challenged Jesus\u2019 disciples over what they did not do.<\/p>\r\n<p>In this event, the Pharisees challenge Jesus\u2019 followers over not washing their hands before they eat. While a rule about washing one\u2019s hands seems very petty while also being sanitary, the Pharisees had taken this health instruction and made it into a spiritual requirement.<\/p>\r\n<p>Jesus\u2019 response to their challenge may seem to go overboard, but instead of simply answering the question that is on the surface, Jesus challenges the foundation that had prompted the question. He even quotes from the prophet Isaiah who said:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201c<strong>All of you praise me<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with your words,<br>but you never really<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0think about me.<br>\r\nIt is useless for you<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to worship me,<br>when you teach rules<br>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0made up by humans.<\/strong>\u201d (v. 6-7 [Isaiah 29:13])<\/p>\r\n<p>Jesus then goes on to describe some of the ways these religious people had elevated their rules over God\u2019s laws. However, Isaiah\u2019s words, and his description of the people, are what stand out to me.<\/p>\r\n<p>Isaiah describes a group of people who praise God with their words, but they really don\u2019t think about what they are doing. While Jesus takes Isaiah\u2019s description and applies it to people in the first century, I wonder if the same could be said for many of those living today.<\/p>\r\n<p>The phrase that stands out in Isaiah\u2019s description is when He quotes God saying, \u201c<strong>It is useless for you to worship me<\/strong>\u201d. When we look at how this quote is structured the uselessness of these people\u2019s worship is connected to the fact that they are not thinking about God.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Why is this?<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>The opening and closing phrases tell us. The people talk a good talk, but their actions tell a different message. Their thoughts are on things that are not aligned with God, which makes their worship useless.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>This passage emphasizes and reminds me that talk is cheap, but when our thoughts, words, and actions are aligned together, then our worship to God will be useful, meaningful, and beneficial for both God and us.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--701\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '701');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part of me wonders if Jesus ever got tired of the Pharisees and other religious leaders challenging Him about things He and His followers did or did not do. While many times, the Pharisees are upset for something that is done that they don\u2019t feel is right, we can learn something powerful in Jesus\u2019 response [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making Our Worship Useful: Mark 7:1-23 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/making-our-worship-useful-mark-7-1-23\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Our Worship Useful: Mark 7:1-23 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part of me wonders if Jesus ever got tired of the Pharisees and other religious leaders challenging Him about things He and His followers did or did not do. 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