Get Real November 23 Devotional
November 23, 2024
MATTHEW 15:1-9
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.”
He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”
Was division Jesus’ primary purpose? Especially within families? In Matthew 15:1-6, Jesus defends the integrity and importance of families against a scribal super-spirituality that allowed men to evade responsibility for the care of their parents by contributing their needed support to God. 1 Timothy 5:8 makes those obligations even clearer, “If you do not provide for our relatives and family, you’ve betrayed the faith and are worse than an unbeliever.”
The family and the church are the two God-designed communities that share the task of nurturing life and faith in every generation! Yet Jesus’ ministry did and will create division in families.
PRAYER
Gracious God, help me fulfill all my obligations to family members. Where there are challenges, help me to overcome, unless there is danger or abuse to be avoided. May my family be a place where you are honored and glorified. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
