Rejecting Rationalization

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled Rejecting Rationalization, was written by Tim Gustafson. An Atlanta police officer asked the driver if she knew why he had stopped her. No idea, she said in bewilderment. Ma'am, you were texting while driving, the officer gently told her. No, no, she protested, holding up her cell phone as evidence, it's an email. Using a cell phone to send an email doesn't grant us a loophole from a law that prohibits texting while driving.

The point of the law isn't to prevent texting, it's to prevent distracted driving. Jesus accused the religious leaders of his day of creating far worse loopholes. Saying in Mark chapter 7, you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God.

He said, quoting the command to honor your father and mother as evidence. Under the hypocritical cloak of religious devotion, these wealthy leaders were neglecting their families. They simply declared their money as devoted to God and voila, no need to help mom and dad in their old age.

Jesus quickly got to the heart of the problem. You nullify the word of God by your tradition, he said. They weren't honoring God, they were dishonoring their parents. Rationalization can be so subtle. With it, we avoid responsibilities, explain away selfish behavior and reject God's direct commands.

If that describes our behavior, we're merely deceiving ourselves. Jesus offers us the opportunity to exchange our selfish tendencies with the guidance of the Spirit behind his Father's good instructions. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Mark chapter 7 verses 6 through 13. He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are merely human rules. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions. And he continued, You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions. For Moses said, Honor your father and mother, and anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban, that is devoted to God, then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus, you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

And you do many things like that. Let's pray. Father, we need your wise discernment. Rescue us from our own denial and guilt. Help us to resist the tendency to rationalize the things we do that are selfishly motivated. And help us to step in your spirit of love, truth, and holiness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.