1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Hosea 6:6
God Wants Mercy, Not Sacrifice
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Micah 6:6-8
What is Good is to Act Justly and to Love Mercy
6 With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Matthew 15:1-20
That Which Defiles
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’”
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.[d] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Luke 15:1-32
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
When Jesus was approached by some Pharisees and teachers of the law one day, they ask Him a simple question based on some practiced old rituals that had grown out of some different traditions...They ask Jesus, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders?...They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”...Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?...For God 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 ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it...Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition...You hypocrites!...Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “‘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.’”...
Did you follow a set of human rules when you fell in love with your spouse?...The Prophets Micah and Hosea recognized what God wanted and wrote about what the LORD wanted and what He would be pleased with...God who set up rituals for sacrifice and offerings, ask will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, and with ten thousand rivers of oil?...Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?...What the LORD wants is not sacrifice of animals and oils, but justice, and kindness, and mercy toward others...And to be kind and to love mercy toward others is another way to of saying love...God was less concerned with the ritual of sacrifice, but was more concerned with love...
It is very difficult to have rules, about love...Do you have rules on how and why you love your children and family?...And we know that God is LOVE...He wants us to honor Him from our hearts...God is like a LOVING Father and we are His offspring who have fallen from His grace...We are like the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son...He has this great desire that we come back to Him...He has this great desire that we be found...God is a seeking God and wants us to come home...He wants us to choose to come back to Him on our own...He wants rejoicing in heaven, when we are found...Our Father created us with free will...God is LOVE...LOVE is something that is not forced, but love is freely given and freely received unconditionally...God cannot and will not force anyone to love Him...We are all created in His Image...Just as we want to love others and have a loving family and have loving friends, God wants us to freely love Him...He desires a Fatherly relationship with each of us, from the heart...As our Father, He wants nothing more for us to be LOVED by Him and to be safe...He wants us to be happy...It would be odd to have a complete checklist or rules on how and why we love our spouse or our child or grandchild...Jesus teaches us and the Pharisees that He and His Father are not a set of meaningless rituals and rules, but wants us to to a restored family and have this family relationship with our Father in heaven...