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Steer clear of "spiritual" self-aggrandizement, Jesus urged.
Also, when you fast, don't be like the play actors, who make it obvious to people that they are fasting by their gloomy looks and their dust-smeared faces. Seriously, I tell you, they have their reward.
But you, when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fast won't be apparent to people, but will be apparent to your secretly watching Father, who will reward you openly.
Again Jesus tells his disciples how important it is to shun religious posturing. We note here that Jesus does uphold the value of fasting, despite the many warnings these days against "excessive" asceticism. In fact, a secret fast helps to bring one closer to God and is of real spiritual value. God does not need anything we have, but by stifling our bodily desires, we are able to "give" something to him.
One can imagine possibly being too hard on one's body because of self-loathing or other psychological illnesses. For example, young women may get caught in the trap of anorexia in which they end up starving to death. This is not what the Lord has in mind, obviously. A born-again person will have the help of the Spirit when he or she fasts or tries to fast.
Fasting is something many of us would rather not think about, as we have not done much to overcome the sick demands of our bodies. And, of course, there has been controversy in the church over how rigorously one should fast.
Some scholars will point out that the assertion, found in Matthew and Mark that a certain kind of demon can be exorcised only with "prayer and fasting," has been doctored, the words "and fasting" having been added. Yet one should not take that alteration by early scribes to mean that there is never a need, metaphorically, to hold a knife to one's throat.
A possibility is that after the destruction of Jerusalem, when Jewish culture had waned considerably, a scribe thought to insert the phrase in Matthew or Mark because he thought that, in the old days, everyone knew that prayer and fasting went hand in hand while these days, he thought, no one knows that fact anymore, and so it would be best to amplify the sentence. Then that scribe, or another, inserted the phrase into the other gospel book.
In this regard, we observe that, though scholars seem fairly certain that the writer of Mark was not a Palestinian Jew (and hence not John Mark), it seems quite plausible that he picked up accounts related by early Christian Jews, who apparently set up a community in Rome before either Peter or Paul showed up among them.
In any case, the fact that "and fasting" was not included in the original texts may well be because to Jews of that period fasting was implied by the word "prayer," especially if intense prayer was meant. All through the Old Testament, earnest prayer goes hand in hand with fasting.
Lest we forget, Jesus was very serious about this Scripture: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
One can imagine possibly being too hard on one's body because of self-loathing or other psychological illnesses. For example, young women may get caught in the trap of anorexia in which they end up starving to death. This is not what the Lord has in mind, obviously. A born-again person will have the help of the Spirit when he or she fasts or tries to fast.
Fasting is something many of us would rather not think about, as we have not done much to overcome the sick demands of our bodies. And, of course, there has been controversy in the church over how rigorously one should fast.
Some scholars will point out that the assertion, found in Matthew and Mark that a certain kind of demon can be exorcised only with "prayer and fasting," has been doctored, the words "and fasting" having been added. Yet one should not take that alteration by early scribes to mean that there is never a need, metaphorically, to hold a knife to one's throat.
A possibility is that after the destruction of Jerusalem, when Jewish culture had waned considerably, a scribe thought to insert the phrase in Matthew or Mark because he thought that, in the old days, everyone knew that prayer and fasting went hand in hand while these days, he thought, no one knows that fact anymore, and so it would be best to amplify the sentence. Then that scribe, or another, inserted the phrase into the other gospel book.
In this regard, we observe that, though scholars seem fairly certain that the writer of Mark was not a Palestinian Jew (and hence not John Mark), it seems quite plausible that he picked up accounts related by early Christian Jews, who apparently set up a community in Rome before either Peter or Paul showed up among them.
In any case, the fact that "and fasting" was not included in the original texts may well be because to Jews of that period fasting was implied by the word "prayer," especially if intense prayer was meant. All through the Old Testament, earnest prayer goes hand in hand with fasting.
Lest we forget, Jesus was very serious about this Scripture: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
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Arise and go free!
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