Matthew 15:7-9 // “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”
- Form-substance confusion produces short-sighted judgements & long-last division
Luke 5:37-39 // “No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
- Form-substance confusion produces tired practices that are fought for but over time have come life-less
- Form-substance confusion produces arrogant religion that breeds a polished hypocrisy
Matthew 15:1-2 // Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
- Father, in Your mercy, please reveal to me…
- Any way in which I devalue other sincere souls because of form
- Any circumstance in which my hope in ministry is in forms and not substance
- Any hypocrisy that I have justified in my life
- And way in which my focus on form is blinding me to the manifestation of Your Presence
- And one question…
