M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The disciples eat with unwashed hands. The commandment of God is transgressed by man’s precepts. Of the woman of Syro-Phoenicia. Of the Sabbath.

7 And the Pharisees came together to him, and some of the scribes who came from Jerusalem. ² And when they saw certain of his disciples eat bread with common hands (that is to say, with unwashed hands), they complained. ³ For the Pharisees and all the Jews, unless they wash their hands often, will not eat, observing the precepts of the elders. ⁴ And when they come from the market, unless they wash, they will not eat. And there are many other things that they have taken upon themselves to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers, and of copper pots, and of tables.

⁵ Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the precepts of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? ⁶ He answered and said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. ⁷ In vain they worship me, teaching doctrines which are nothing but the commandments of men. ⁸ For you lay the commandment of God aside, and observe the precepts of men, such as the washing of pitchers and of cups. And many other suchlike things you do.

⁹ And he said to them, All too well do you cast aside the commandment of God to maintain your own precepts. ¹⁰ For Moses said, Honour your father and your mother, and whosoever curses father or mother, let him die for it. ¹¹ But you say a man should say to father or mother, Corban, which is, What you ask me for, to help you with, is dedicated to God. ¹² And so you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, ¹³ making the word of God of no effect through your own precepts, which you have established. And many such things you do.

¹⁴ And he called all the people to him and said to them, Hearken unto me, every one of you, and understand. ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a man that can defile him when it enters into him. But those things that proceed out of him are the things that defile a man. ¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁷ And when he went indoors, away from the people, his disciples asked him about the similitude. ¹⁸ And he said to them, Are you also without understanding? Do you not yet perceive that whatever thing from without enters into a person, it cannot defile him, ¹⁹ because it enters not into his heart, but into the stomach, and goes out into the drain that carries away all foods?

²⁰ And he said, What defiles a man is that which comes out of a man. ²¹ For from within, namely out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts: adultery, fornication, murder, ²² theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, uncleanness, a wicked eye, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and defile a person.

²⁴ From there he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and wanted no one to know. But he could not be hid. ²⁵ For a certain woman whose daughter had a foul spirit heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek out of Syro-Phoenicia, and she besought him to cast the devil out of her daughter. ²⁷ And Jesus said to her, Let the children first be fed. For it is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to dogs. ²⁸ She answered and said to him, Quite so, Master. Nevertheless, the dogs also eat under the table of the children’s crumbs. ²⁹ And he said to her, For this saying, go your way; the devil has gone out of your daughter. ³⁰ And when she arrived home, she found the devil departed, and her daughter lying on the bed.

³¹ And he departed again from the region of Tyre and Sidon, and went to the Sea of Galilee through the region of the Ten Cities. ³² And some people brought to him a man who was deaf and stammered in his speech, and asked him to put his hand upon him. ³³ And he took him aside from the people, and put his fingers in his ears, and spat, and touched his tongue, ³⁴ and looked up to heaven and sighed, and said to him, Ephatha; that is to say, Be opened. ³⁵ And straightaway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.

³⁶ And Jesus directed them to tell no one. But the more he forbad them, so much the more greatly they spoke of it. ³⁷ And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He has done all things well, and has made both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.

Christ has delivered us from the law and death. Paul shows what the flesh and natural man is, and calls it the law of the members.

7 Do you not consider, brethren (I speak to people who know the law), that the law has dominion over a person as long as it endures? ² For the woman who is under a husband is bound by the law to the man as long as he lives. But if the husband is dead, she is released from the law of the husband. ³ So then, if while the husband is alive she couples herself with another man, she will be counted a wedlock breaker. But if the husband is dead, she is free from the law, so that she is no wedlock breaker if she couples herself with another man.

⁴ In a similar way, my brethren, you are dead concerning the law by the body of Christ, in order to be coupled to another (I mean, to him who is risen again from death), so that we will bring forth fruit unto God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the lusts of sin, which were stirred up by the law, reigned in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. ⁶ But now we are delivered from the law, and dead to that to which we were in bondage, in order to serve in a new life of the Spirit, and not in the old life of the letter.

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. But I would not have known what sin meant, if not by the law. For I would not have known what coveting meant unless the law had said, You shall not covet. ⁸ But sin took occasion by the means of the commandment, and wrought in me all manner of inordinate desire. For without the law, sin was dead. ⁹ I once lived without law. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I was dead. ¹⁰ And the very same commandment that was ordained for life, was found to be to me an occasion of death. ¹¹ For sin took occasion by the means of the commandment, and thus deceived me, and by the same commandment slew me. ¹² Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good.

¹³ Was then that which is good, made death to me? God forbid. No, sin was death to me, so that it could appear how sin, by the means of that which is good, had wrought death in me; so that sin which is under the commandment might be out of measure sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin, ¹⁵ inasmuch as I know not what I do. For what I would, I do not, but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶ If I would rather not do that which I do, I grant to the law that it is good. ¹⁷ So then now it is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is to say, in my flesh) dwells no good thing. To will is present with me, but I find no means to perform that which is good. ¹⁹ For I do not that good thing which I would, but I do the evil that I would not. ²⁰ Finally, if I do what I do not want, then it is not I who do it, but sin that dwells in me does it.

²¹ I find then by the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. ²² I delight in the law of God as far as the inner man is concerned, ²³ but I see another law in my members, rebelling against the law of my mind, and subduing me to the law of sin that is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I myself in my mind serve the law of God, and in my flesh the law of sin.