After Jesus healed a deaf/mute man, he charged those who watched, “tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” Mark 7:36
On more than one occasion, after healing someone, Jesus expressly commanded that they tell no one about what He had done. As far as I can tell, not one of these healed people obeyed Jesus. They may have been grateful for what He did, but they saw no reason to do what He said. Evidently, telling others about what Jesus did for them was more important than obeying Him.
How easily we ignore the commands of God when we believe it to be for a noble cause – a classic illustration of the end justifying the means. Why not spread abroad the fact that Jesus can and does heal the infirmed? We disregard the commandments regarding the qualifications of an elder, because we believe the commandments are punitive and we need to forgive. Women disregard the wishes of their husbands when they believe they have the moral high ground, since the wife is obviously right and the husband is obviously wrong. Illustrations of this phenomenon abound.
The one “willing to justify himself” concludes that his perception of what is right is a legitimate excuse for ignoring the wishes of authority, even though if he thinks about it, he knows that he should not try to be more holy than God!
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