I'm reading Warren Wiersbe "Real Worship". He has a great way with words. "religious veneer" and "back to God's reality" was especially useful.
Recently I've been reviewing anti-Christian writing about problems people have with the Bible, one listed "meaningless" verses that are wasted space in their opinion. One was Leviticus 19:19, "...Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." This brought to mind how Jesus clarified the law and prophets. Mark 2:21, Matthew 9:16, "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result." - Luke 5:36 KJV adds, "the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old"
Ellicott's Commentary says this:
1 Corinthians 8:9-11
Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge...(this is sin)
1 Corinthians 10:21
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.
2 Corinthians 6:15,16
What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people."
Clothing is used in the Scriptures symbolically and meaningfully, see this for more details:
Rags to Riches, how the Holy Spirit changes us everyday
Recently I've been reviewing anti-Christian writing about problems people have with the Bible, one listed "meaningless" verses that are wasted space in their opinion. One was Leviticus 19:19, "...Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." This brought to mind how Jesus clarified the law and prophets. Mark 2:21, Matthew 9:16, "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result." - Luke 5:36 KJV adds, "the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old"
Ellicott's Commentary says this:
The meaning of the parable in its direct application lies very near the surface. The "garment" is that which is outward, the life and conversation of the man, which show his character. The old garment is the common life of sinful men, such as Matthew and his guests; the new garment is the life of holiness, the religious life in its completeness; fasting, as one element of that life, is the patch of new cloth which agrees not with the old, and leads to a greater evil, a "worse rent" in the life than before. No one would so deal with the literal garment. Yet this was what the Pharisees and the disciples of John were wishing to do with the half-converted publicans. This, we may add, is what the Church of Christ has too often done in her work as the converter of the nations. Sacramental ordinances or monastic vows, or Puritan formul, or Quaker conventionalities, have been engrafted on lives that were radically barbarous, or heathen, or worldly, and the contrast has been glaring, and the "rent" made worse. The more excellent way, which our Lord pursued, and which it is our wisdom to pursue, is to take the old garment, and to transform it, as by a renewing power from within, thread by thread, till old things are passed away, and all things are become new. - biblehub.comPaul further clarifies these idea:
1 Corinthians 8:9-11
Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge...(this is sin)
1 Corinthians 10:21
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.
2 Corinthians 6:15,16
What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people."
Clothing is used in the Scriptures symbolically and meaningfully, see this for more details:
Rags to Riches, how the Holy Spirit changes us everyday
