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consider the fact that these two passages contain all the occurrences of the word in the
New Testament.
BLASPHEMY.--Mark 3: 29 shows that the Scribes were guilty of the most
unpardonable blasphemy.
We will not go through the list given in Mark, readers should make a study of the
words there given. One thing is prominent in this parable. The Pharisees were guilty of
breaking the very law in which they boasted so much. Listen to our Lord's summary of
the Law:--
"Jesus said (observe the order here and in Matt. 15:), Thou shalt do no murder, thou
shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Honour
thy father and thy mother (cf. Matt. 15: 4-6), and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself"
(Matt. 19: 18, 19).
How weak, how beggarly, the petty observances and mere trifling externals of the
Pharisees appear when seen from the standpoint of love. The apostle Paul, writing to the
Romans, seems to have the pharisaical spirit before him. First in Rom. 2: we read:--
"For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. . . . Behold, thou art
called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest His will,
and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art
confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind (cf. Matt. 15: 14), a light of them which
are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which have the FORM of
knowledge and of the truth in the law (cf. II Tim. 3: 5); thou therefore that TEACHEST
another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that PREACHEST a man should not steal, dost
thou steal? Thou SAYEST a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit
adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? thou that makest thy
boast in the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God. . . . who by the letter
and circumcision dost transgress the law? (Matt. 15: 3). for he is not a Jew who is one
outwardly (see Matt. 13: 28). . . . circumcision is that of the HEART, in the spirit, and
not in the letter (cf. II Cor. 3: 6), whose praise is not of men, but of God."
The sequel is found in Rom. 13: 8-10:--
"Owe no man anything, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other
commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself'."
Returning to the parable of Matt. 15: with the knowledge we have now gained, do we
not see that it foreshadowed that spirit which manifested itself in all its hollowness and
sham, and whose loveless creed culminated in the basest act that the world has ever
witnessed. The second set of parables in Matthew's Gospel becomes luminous in the
light of this one. Into what a ditch these blind guides led that poor blinded people! The
Lord disowns them, they were never planted by Him, they were sown by the Devil, they
shall be rooted up (Matt. 13: 29). They are the tares, the children of the wicked one. The
burden of guilt rested chiefly upon the rulers and leaders of the people. They neither