“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
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 — Jesus' response begins with the accusation of hypocrisy through the Isaiah 29:13 citation. The hypocrites are not people who consciously say one thing and do another but people whose external religious practice has become disconnected from internal reality. These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me is the diagnostic: the lips perform the worship while the heart remains at distance. The external tradition-observance has become a substitute for the internal orientation it was meant to express.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a note on this verse
0/2000
No notes on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!