I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 6-7

I am not entirely sure what we should make of this, but the first thing which struck me today was that John the Baptist was killed for speaking truth to power.  However, his trouble did not come from confronting Herod over Herod’s policies, or even Herod’s actions as political ruler.  Rather, John the Baptist confronted Herod over his personal moral failings.  Perhaps if Christians today focused their attention on upholding the God’s moral code we would have less need to uphold God’s code of social justice.  I try to limit how much I write about social justice because the topic has become so loaded with terms which don’t mean what they seem to mean.  I strongly believe that we should treat every human being as created in the image of God.  No one is less worthy of respect and honor than myself, and the only degree to which anyone is more worthy of respect and honor is the degree to which they serve others.

I am not quite sure how I am going to tie this together, but I believe that Jesus’ comments about tradition and the sources of defilement relates to what I wrote above.  Jesus tells us that the truly vile things come from within.  We should be concerned with addressing the evil thoughts we have more than with the outward appearance of righteousness. Jesus gives us a list of things which can defile us.  I find it noteworthy that He lists sexual immorality, adultery, and lustful desires: three variations on the same idea.