Eating bread without first washing their hands

Mar 7:2  And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 

The disciples of Christ were found eating bread without first washing their hands. The Pharisees were quick to point out their “sin”. Their “sin” was that they had broken the “tradition of the elders.” The "tradition of the elders" required them to always wash before eating lest they might have touched something ceremonially unclean.

The Pharisees laid great stress on the “traditions of the elders. It isn’t that all traditions are wrong; certainly they are not, but they should never be held up as equal to or above the authority of the Scriptures. But to the Pharisees, so long as their devotees were careful in the minor observances, they were permitted a wide license so far as the weightier matters of the Law were concerned (verse 9, 13). Thus, they placed the “traditions of the elder” more important than the Law of God.

But Jesus viewed holding traditions above God’s Word as a serious offense, and condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy (Matthew 23:23). When the commandments of men are taught for doctrine, the “worship” of God becomes in vain (Mark 7:7).

The easiest thing to find is a fault. One can simply find a fault with practically anything. You can certainly find a fault with my writings, my hairstyle, my face (well, I can’t do anything about it except to go for plastic surgery), or the clothes of wear (you may not like the colour or the design). You certainly can find fault with the way I talk, sit, walk, stand, munch my food, laugh and sneeze (I sneeze awfully loud). I don’t need to commit a hideous crime but the small little insignificant things can really irritate someone and cause him to find fault with me.

We can always find a fault when we go look for it. The Pharisees made it their business to be constantly looking for faults in Jesus and His disciples and they always could find one. You may lose something and be searching high and low and still unable to find it. But a fault is easy to find.

Usually, the problem is not with the other person, but with the fault finder: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye” (Matthew 7:5).

How to overcome the sin of being a fault-finder? Think of Philippians 4:8 every time we want to criticise something or someone: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

If we dwell on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtuous, and praiseworthiness, we won’t be seeing many faults in others. We will be seeing only the good things about them and blind to their “faults”. How is it that a small little black dot seems to fill up a whole sheet of white paper? Let us focus on the white and not the little black dot. I like the advertisement of a radio station: “Listen to only the good stuff.”

Therefore, consider what is the substance of our conversations? Is it about the faults of others? Are they free of judgment, criticisms, and complaints? You see, the fault-finding spirit always find many faults that are “no faults”.

Let us kill the fault-finding spirit. Think about love. Think of good things. Be careful with our words: “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colosians 4:6).

Having said that, I must confess I am still learning myself.

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.