When Jesus was challenged about why He didn’t wash before eating, He drew attention to the need for inner purity as being more necessary than outer cleanliness. The hypocritical religious leaders majored on the visible, outward rules rather than a purity of heart and motive.

This was one of Christ’s major themes … becoming clean on the inside. Paul referred to a circumcision of the heart as being more important than the outward circumcision of the flesh.

Of course, we need to bathe and keep clean. But the Lord is mostly encouraging us to seek to be pure and clean from the inside out. The Word of God is our washing agent.

READ/LISTEN: Luke 11,12