Read: Luke 10:25-37; Acts 10
Being “unclean” for us means very little. We will often eat with unclean hands and sometimes even eat off unclean dishes. We cope (sometimes barely) with an unclean house and unclean yard. For a guy to not shower for a few days may seem a trifling affair, except for his wife!! But to a Jew “unclean” had a whole different world of connotations. Being unclean to a Jew was what spilling a beer is to many Aussies, and even worse! Unclean meant isolation from the temple, from worship of God and possibly from the entire nation of Israel!! Avoiding anything “unclean” became a source of identity and a past time for many in Israel, especially the religious hierarchy.
The Levite and the Priest in the Parable of the Good Samaritan would not help the injured man because it would have made them unclean and unfit for service in the temple. They willingly avoided touching anything or anyone unclean for the sake of ritual purity. Peter would not eat the meat in the vision of Acts 10 because the food was unclean and he had never eaten anything unclean.
Unfortunately, there are many taboos in our churches today that we avoid, thinking that they make us unclean. Such rules and regulations take on a greater significance than the Word of God and the greatest command to love the Lord wholeheartedly and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. We entertain so many rules and regulations that are simply not from God, but are man-made inventions to help us feel religious and hence closer to God.
Let me encourage you to look around your church, even around your own personality and thinking, to make sure that there are no such taboos that are stopping you from reaching out in love and compassion to the needy. Let me encourage you to assess everything in the light of God’s Word and to be free to love, to serve and to give sacrificially.
Read and memorise Jeremiah 31:33. How does the writing of the law on our heart and mind correlate or fit with our freedom in Christ?
Prayer Points:
> For outreach ministry to the large population of foreign workers and refugees in Israel.
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