<p>15:4&nbsp;<em>For God said</em>- AV &quot;Commanded&quot;. His word speaks directly to us, whereas the Greek word for &ldquo;tradition&rdquo; means something passed down. To make the point, the Lord speaks of the commandments of Moses as&nbsp;<em>God </em>commanding. The Jews spoke of&nbsp;<em>Moses&nbsp;</em>commanding (Jn. 8:5), and although the Lord also does (Mt. 8:4), His point is that it was effectively&nbsp;<em>God</em>&nbsp;commanding.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Saying</em>- AV. This apparently redundant word severs to emphasize that God&rsquo;s word is a living word, speaking directly to us, and not mediated to us through passed down traditions of men.</p>
<p><em>Honour your father and your mother, and he that speaks evil of father or mother</em>- The Lord Jesus saw as parallel the commands to honour parents and also not to curse them. These two separate commands (from Ex. 20:12 and 21:17) He spoke of as only one: &quot;<em>the </em>commandment&quot; (Mk. 7:9). He therefore saw that not to honour parents was effectively to curse them (Mk. 7:10).&nbsp;<em>Omitting&nbsp;</em>to honour parents, even if it involved appearing to give one's labour to God's temple, was therefore the same as&nbsp;<em>committing&nbsp;</em>the sin of cursing them. He therefore speaks in :6 of how they did&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;</em>honour their parents by the legal loophole they had devised- but this is the same as cursing them. The Lord looked very deeply at the implication of human behaviour and positions; and He does the same with ours too. The fact He has such penetrating depth of analysis highlights His patient grace with us- for He realizes the nature of human sin far more perceptively than we do, who see only a few implications of each sin.</p>
<p><em>Must surely die-&nbsp;</em>In Mark&rsquo;s account, the Lord taught that to wangle one's way out of caring for their parents by delegating it to the synagogue was effectively cursing them, and those guilty must &quot;die the death&quot; (Mk. 7:10,11). To him who knows to do good but does it not, this omission is counted as sin (James 4:17- written in the context of brethren omitting to help each other).</p>