More on That Which Defiles Mark 7:14-22
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Reflection:
Similar to yesterday, Jesus is defining an authentic spirituality. He is saying it is not dealing so much with externals, what goes into the body, but what is going on inside that matters. Some have characterized it as, "an inside job." And why do we need something to come from outside to deal with is going on inside us. Jesus says that our evil thoughts (notice not actions) come out of a person's heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "the heart is deceitful above all else."
Does that mean we are completely evil and only bad things, like Jesus describes, come out of our hearts? No. But it does mean we have a sin problem that doesn't start by what comes into us, but what goes out. And the disciples are slow to get this. All of their lives, they have been trained to think of righteousness as something you do or by what you put into your bodies. To be sure there were kosher food laws in the Old Testament, which explains some of it. But they didn't see the primary thing God wanted was, "to love The Lord your God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourselves!" This was a summary of all the Law, but was not the main thing happening in the hearts of the people of God. Jesus will be the answer for a heart hardened by sin's deceitfulness, but we are not yet at this part of the story.
So what can this mean for us?
1. As Jesus was concerned primarily with one's heart condition, how do we measure ours? We have all kinds of machines and tests to evaluate the health of our physical hearts, but do we know if our spiritual heart is clogged up. I think this starts with the love of God, which fuels our love of others, both close to us and those we meet. When something other than God has taken first place in our hearts it will affect our relationships as well. God initiates a love relationship with us through sending His Son to show how much He loves us. We can love because he first loves us!
2. We need disciplines in our lives that help us to keep our hearts in the right place. Spiritual disciplines are the means of grace that we partner with to help us to become more like Christ. John 15 puts it this way. As you abide in me, I will abide in you. Together with me you will bear much, apart from me you can do nothing. Spiritual disciplines like silence and solitude, prayer, and reading the bible with an ear to hear what is God saying to me are primary ways we can abide in Christ.
3. Finally, by having others in our lives that we are living out faith with in community. Others can help us to discern when our hearts are out of alignment with God's will for our lives. It is good to have at least 2-3 people, who know us very well and can speak truth into our lives. They can be there to talk to us when we need to confess where we are at with God.
These are just some of the ways we can, "guard our hearts which are the wellspring of all life!" Proverbs 4:23
Amen.
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Reflection:
Similar to yesterday, Jesus is defining an authentic spirituality. He is saying it is not dealing so much with externals, what goes into the body, but what is going on inside that matters. Some have characterized it as, "an inside job." And why do we need something to come from outside to deal with is going on inside us. Jesus says that our evil thoughts (notice not actions) come out of a person's heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "the heart is deceitful above all else."
Does that mean we are completely evil and only bad things, like Jesus describes, come out of our hearts? No. But it does mean we have a sin problem that doesn't start by what comes into us, but what goes out. And the disciples are slow to get this. All of their lives, they have been trained to think of righteousness as something you do or by what you put into your bodies. To be sure there were kosher food laws in the Old Testament, which explains some of it. But they didn't see the primary thing God wanted was, "to love The Lord your God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourselves!" This was a summary of all the Law, but was not the main thing happening in the hearts of the people of God. Jesus will be the answer for a heart hardened by sin's deceitfulness, but we are not yet at this part of the story.
So what can this mean for us?
1. As Jesus was concerned primarily with one's heart condition, how do we measure ours? We have all kinds of machines and tests to evaluate the health of our physical hearts, but do we know if our spiritual heart is clogged up. I think this starts with the love of God, which fuels our love of others, both close to us and those we meet. When something other than God has taken first place in our hearts it will affect our relationships as well. God initiates a love relationship with us through sending His Son to show how much He loves us. We can love because he first loves us!
2. We need disciplines in our lives that help us to keep our hearts in the right place. Spiritual disciplines are the means of grace that we partner with to help us to become more like Christ. John 15 puts it this way. As you abide in me, I will abide in you. Together with me you will bear much, apart from me you can do nothing. Spiritual disciplines like silence and solitude, prayer, and reading the bible with an ear to hear what is God saying to me are primary ways we can abide in Christ.
3. Finally, by having others in our lives that we are living out faith with in community. Others can help us to discern when our hearts are out of alignment with God's will for our lives. It is good to have at least 2-3 people, who know us very well and can speak truth into our lives. They can be there to talk to us when we need to confess where we are at with God.
These are just some of the ways we can, "guard our hearts which are the wellspring of all life!" Proverbs 4:23
Amen.
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