Stop Following Your Heart (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

1 Thing Matters

SERIES: “The Need for Followership”

A loving father gives his son and daughter a list of rules and regulations. Chores, curfews, civilities, dress code—the father makes his will clearly known. The son strives to follow the rules for two reasons. 1) He wants to get his allowance. 2) He is afraid that if he breaks the rules, his father will punish him. The daughter strives to follow the rules, also for two reasons. 1) She believes her father established those rules not to control her but for her safety and blessing. 2) She wants to demonstrate how much she loves and trusts her father. Those two children’s actions might look almost identical. Their hearts are very different!

Following Christ is not simply a matter of outward observance of laws. Nor is it a matter of following our own heart. The followership Christ seeks flows from new hearts that have been radically transformed by God’s law and gospel. Christ wants his followers to be less like the son described above, and more like the daughter. This week we see that followers of Christ obey his law from the heart.