The opposite of having a pure heart is having a defiled heart. This daily devotional looks at why we should be concerned about the inside instead of the outside.
Nuggets
- The outside doesn’t matter as much as the inside does.
- The evil comes from our hearts and is shown in our thoughts and actions.
We want the status of our hearts to be pure. However, Jesus warned us that our hearts can defile us. What does that mean?
Let's Put It into Context
“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’” (Mk. 7: 14-15 ESV)
Jesus was teaching His listeners, and He put it very plainly that they got it wrong.
Inside, not Outside
“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.)” (Mk. 7: 17-19 ESV)
The outside doesn’t matter as much as the inside does.
Even the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was trying to say. Jesus couldn’t believe His ears. He came back with a why-don’t-you-understand-this response.
First, let’s talk about the bottom line. Jesus was saying that it isn’t the stomach that determined what defiles a person.
It is the heart.
When things go into the stomach, they don’t alter our character. An expanding waistline does not make us a better or worse person!
But think about who Jesus was talking to when He made the statement disciples were questioning. He was talking to the Pharisees (Mk. 7: 1).
Jesus frequently told the Pharisees that their reliance on ceremony and tradition wasn’t going to cut it. Even their reliance on the law — especially what they had added — wasn’t what God was looking for in order to gain salvation.
The Pharisees were all about what showed. This puffed up their pride.
Jesus wanted them to establish a relationship with God. The Expository Outlines said that Jesus was getting them ready for the end of the ceremonial rites.
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It was more than that, though. We need to become like God. We need to adopt His character.
Why aren’t the outward things important? In the Expository Discourses, it was written, “The fountainhead of all that enters into human history and character, is the heart. Hence, the character of the moral law, the order of the Spirit’s work, the importance of the inspired precept, ‘Keep thine heart,’ etc.”
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Why didn’t the disciples understand what Jesus was saying? I think, sometimes, we put too much expectation on them because they were with Jesus for three years.
They were still humans. They still had biases and prejudices. Even up to the Last Supper, Peter was arguing with Jesus that He didn’t have to die.
We need to see the disciples for who they were — and who they became.
Restatement and Explanation
“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’” (Mk. 7: 20-23 ESV)
The evil comes from our hearts and is shown in our thoughts and actions.
Jesus wanted the disciples to hear what He was saying, so He said it again and expanded on it. Evil comes from the heart — the inside.
Mark 7: 21-22 give a long list of what this evil is. We have talked about some of them before, so we are not going to focus on what the evil is.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
We are going to focus on the heart. Jesus’ point was that the evil defiles the heart.
Swinnock argued that the heart is the factory in which the evil is created. This agrees with what we said before.
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I know we’ve talked about this before, but do you think I can find it? Of course not.
We generally think that our minds control our hearts. But they don’t.
Our hearts control our minds.
Our character is housed in our hearts, not our minds. It isn’t in our intellect.
It is in our being.
So, I can see where Swinnock said that the heart is the factory in which the evil is created. That is where sin tries to entrench itself.
We have to be careful about what we let into our hearts. We must cut out the evil and replace God’s good.
Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people through His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
We are defiled by evil.
Making the Connections
Only faith in Jesus can cleanse our hearts. That is why it isn’t enough just to do good works. We have to have the sin cut out of us in order to be clean and pure.
Glossary
How Do We Apply This?
Boardman gave us a very big caution. He wrote, “Friend, overtaken in a sin, do not judge yourself too charitably. Don’t ascribe too much to outward circumstances. Recall the first Adam: he was in a garden, where every outward circumstance was for him; yet he fell. Recall the second Adam: He was in a desert, where every outward circumstance was against Him; yet He remained erect: the Devil failed to conquer Him, not because He was Divine, but because He was sinless. Don’t excuse yourself then too much by your ‘environment. ‘Man is not altogether an imbecile. True, ‘circumstances do make the man.’ But they make him only in the sense and degree that he permits them to make him.”
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If I were doing Elaine-speak, I would say our choices based on our circumstances — but not our circumstances — determine whether we sin or not. We will not be given a pass for making the wrong decision, even in the worst of circumstances.
It comes down to choices, which is hooked to attitude. Are we going to choose for God or against Him?
Father God. We choose You. We choose Your love and Your Salvation. Change our hearts to be more like Yours. Amen.
What do you think?
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