important issues. On a yahoo group a "sister" brings up this issue
So my dear husband has been studying for a few months now. He is attending all the meetings and is making comments. He has expressed his desire to become an unbaptized publisher. The elder he spoke with mentioned that he would have to shave his pinch
On the mentioned yahoo group, the sister got a reply from a little birdie, also sent to her personal email in case it gets "moderated" into the bit bucket:
The religious teachers and the leaders of the temple ( Pharisees ) had heard about Jesus’ miracles. People were talking about all the amazing things Jesus was doing. The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus. They were always looking for ways to trick Jesus. These men only cared about what things looked like on the outside. They didn’t care about what was on the inside. So they had made a lot of rules about washing and keeping things clean. They made people think that if a person was clean enough on the outside, they would be closer to God.
One day, these Pharisees saw Jesus and His disciples eat without washing their hands. Jesus broke these men’s rules! They were angry. They asked Jesus why He and His disciples didn’t wash their hands like the rule said. Jesus answered by asking them a question. He asked them why they didn't follow God’s laws. Jesus knew what was in their hearts.
Jesus told the Pharisees that even their worship of God was not right, because they didn’t really mean it in their hearts. Jesus later told the Pharisees that they were clean on the outside, but the inside (the heart) was dirty. He compared it to a cup—it can be clean
on the outside, while the inside is filthy.
Jesus also compared these men to tombs—graves for dead people. The tombs may be clean on the outside, but on the inside they are unclean. Jesus warned the Pharisees that they needed to worry about what was in their heart more than what they looked like on the outside.
Sometimes we care more about what we look like than what is in our heart. It is definitely a good thing to take a bath and be clean. But it is a lot more important that we are clean on the inside, in our hearts.
Wearing worldly business attire and grooming in a manner that was stylish 50 years ago presents a certain appearance. It does nothing about what is inside the heart. If you have found a group of fellow believers with true Christian love, you will know them by their looking beyond external appearances and seeing the inside. That is one thing a Pharisee class group can not fake, is love.