Mark 7:14-23 — What's In Your Heart?

Photo by Yosh Ginsu on Unsplash

Mark 7:14-23 

And he called the people to him again and said to them,

“Hear me, all of you, and understand:

There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them,

“Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that

whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 

since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”

(Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “

What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 

All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Comments:

I would like to focus on verse 15, "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him..." We see that Jesus continued his teaching against the S&Ps hypocrisy by further illustrating that impurity comes not from the outside, but from the inside. The practical result of this is the declaration of all foods clean as Mark indicates in his editorial note. Food is merely physical and passes through the body sooner or later and is expelled after the good (nutrition) has been removed. Yet, in my mind, the most profound thing about this statement is that Jesus doesn't give us any room for blaming our actions, attitudes, and words upon anyone else, for our defilement doesn't come from the outside—it comes from the inside. It is out of our own heart that we become irritable, immoral, irresponsible, and defiled. It is when we choose to indulge the evil desires of the fleshly part of our heart that we defile ourselves and those we represent.

The Defiling 13

v. 21-23 "For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

I think that as Christians we can all too often blame the devil (or his demons) for our failure or the failures of others. The things found in this list are specifically said to come from within us, not from some outside source. We need to be a little more forthright in accepting responsibility for our own sinful nature! It is desiring evil that got the Israelites into trouble in the wilderness. They were not lovers of God.

The question for us is what, or who is in our hearts. We will always follow what we love. Jesus desires to cleanse us on the inside, how will we respond to his purifying love?

“…God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:5b-10)

USGS Photograph taken May 18, 1980,
by Austin Post.

Spiritual disciplines are designed to try to control the unruliness of the heart through will-oriented behavioral restrictions. But they don't work over the long haul. At some point, the heart will overrule the will. In Galatians 5, Paul refers to these defiling eruptions as "the works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:19-21). As I write this, it is the 40th Anniversary of Mt. St. Helens' catastrophic eruption that took 61 lives in the state of Washington. What we need to do is fall in love with Jesus, in response to his love for us. Once that happens, our heart is transformed, and our values and desires are realigned in response. Sure, this transformation will be expressed in spiritual practices such as prayer, praise, Bible reading, serving others, etc. But these will no longer be "disciplines" imposed from the outside but an abundant joyful overflow from the inside... against which there is no law (Gal. 5:23).