Welcome to Tim Men of Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

My name is Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon.

I have a friend who's really open to conversations about faith,

but who will be the first to tell you that he isn't a Christian.

Let's just call him Hank.

So several years ago, Hank and I were waiting to pick up our kids

from one of the many practices they were involved in, when out of nowhere he just blurts that he

hates how hypocritical Christians are.

And this sent Hank on a brief rant about all the ways Christians turn him off to Jesus.

I get it.

Sometimes the behavior of those who call themselves Christians can be an obstacle keeping some people from Jesus.

I said to Hank, the more you talk about how much you dislike hypocrisy,

the more you sound like Jesus.

Hank was surprised, to say the least, he thought his disdain for hypocrisy was a reason

to reject Jesus, and here I was telling him that his disdain for hypocrisy was making him

sound more and more like Jesus. I'm not sure anyone has taken a more public and

forceful stand against hypocrisy than Jesus.

And one place we see that play out is in a discussion that Jesus has with the Pharisees

about the law.

We find all this happening in Mark Chapter 7.

For a few centuries before the time of Jesus, some Jewish groups, including Pharisees, had created

laws that governed people's behavior. And while these laws were not found in the scriptures,

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