God's Promise.

Jesus said: "'Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."'"  Mark 7:6 (NRSV)

This is significant because God looks upon the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

God is not so concerned with our obedience to rigid commandments and laws as He is with the condition of our hearts.

This can be seen in the exhortations of the Old Testament Prophets: the orphan, the widow, the alien, the poor, the naked, the oppressed.....

"I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh."  Ezekiel 11;19 (NRSV)

This is God's promise to Israel.

  

And it is His promise to us.

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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