December 6

Dec 6 - Today from Proverbs 6 we look at verses 16-19
"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers."

One day (Matthew 15), as Jesus was walking amongst the people, teaching and healing their sick, some Pharisees and teachers of the law came from Jerusalem to straighten Him out on a few things. They could not help but acknowledge Jesus as a Rabbi and great teacher, but His disciples were not chosen from the best schools or of pedigree families. They were fishermen, commoners, and one was even a former tax collector. If Jesus was to be a Rabbi in Israel, He must properly train and discipline His own disciples. For starters, they did not ceremonially wash before they ate. What kind of example was that to the people?
I am convinced that had they come to Jesus in private with an open mind, Jesus would have addressed them much differently. But their intention was to belittle this respected Rabbi in the eyes of the people. Because they chose a public venue to challenge Him, Jesus gave them a public reprimand. He revealed their hypocrisy in just one example. Then He revealed their hearts with just one scripture as He quoted from Isaiah; "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." These learned leaders of Jerusalem were experts on the letter of the law, but had no concept of the spirit of the law. "It's not what physically goes into a man's mouth that makes him unclean," Jesus continued. "It's what spiritually comes out of his mouth that makes him unclean." It was a great opportunity for the Pharisees and teachers of the law to humble themselves and examine their own hearts. But the text reveals that they were not convicted in even the smallest way. They were offended!
His disciples, on the other hand, wanted further clarification. That's the heart of a true disciple. "Teach me Lord. I want to know you and better understand your ways." Jesus complied, and made it very clear; "The things which come out of the mouth come from the heart. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean.'" These have nothing to do with 'rules taught by men'. They have everything to do with God's order and His moral law. His moral law is meant to serve to protect human dignity and the value of every human life. The spirit of the moral law honors the fact that God has made every man in His image, and that God alone is the Supreme Judge. The Pharisees let tradition become law and lost sight of the fact that love is the perfect fulfillment of the law. If these learned leaders of Jerusalem can become self-deceived, you can be sure that we can too.
"A man who stirs up dissension among brothers." The Pharisees would be appalled to think that they were in service of the devil. Yet, in their attempt to discredit Jesus and turn the people away from Him, that is exactly what they were. That's pretty obvious to us now, here in the twenty-first century, because we know Jesus is the Messiah. Yet there is not an institution today in our modern culture that is more plagued with dissension than is the institution of the church. It appears that here are too many self-appointed leaders feeling they need to uphold traditions to the death, and yet have little or no concept of the spirit of the law. In their self-righteous, self-appointed zeal they make their case, build a following, and use whatever leverage they can acquire to right whatever situations motivate them. Soon the body is divided and the war is on. These great campaigners would never consider attacking Jesus as did the Pharisees, but they have no qualms about dividing and tearing apart Jesus' body. God hates it. One needs not to be a leader to be guilty. Any who enter in and follow dissenters share in the guilt. Dissenters have no power without followers.
God has set authority in His church for the purpose of unity. God's Word gives those who disagree with the authority proper venues of approach. Covert dissension is not one of those approaches. If the church will honor God's Word as the authority for church structure and discipline, there will be very little harmful dissension in the church. One thing is sure, stirring dissension among the brothers is odious to God because of all of the pain, discouragement and bitterness it produces amongst those for whom He loves and died. Once again, this is not an exercise for us to look for what God might hate in others. We are to look for corruption in our own hearts. Let us look into our hearts today and see if we are contributing to, or have been party to dissension in His body. When Jesus reveals any corrupt condition of our heart we can do one of two things: We can become offended, or we can humble ourselves and confess and repent. He leaves us with the choice, and He will respond accordingly.