Looking for the Loopholes...

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

(Matthew 15)

Hand washing.  It is sacred to the elementary school teacher when the flu is running rampant to his/her classroom.  Yet, as each of us look at our lives, we find dozens of other ways we compromise our health and that of others: sleepless schedules, not bundling up, going to restaurants, and even careless hygiene on our own parts.  More than that - it is so easy for us to criticize others and fail to find the faults that makes our lives crazy. We look for loopholes to excuse our own inconsistencies.  We come up with our own rules and expect everyone else to conform to them. I once heard a professing Christian proclaim she was a "rules girl" as if it was a good thing.  As believers we will want to obey God's law, but whenever we begin to expect everyone else to live up to the rules (God's or whoever), but not ourselves, we are just looking for loopholes.  And some day we will find ourselves getting caught in them, and trip ourselves up.