Being Clean

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

BEING CLEAN

Mark 7:17-23

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 man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.") 20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'" 

NIV

When it comes to food, Jesus is simply talking about the bodily function, and as we can clearly see all food has been declared clean. This could only mean that if we as men place any kind of restriction or restraint on anything we eat or drink for the purpose of appearing holy we are absolutely in defiance of what Jesus said. It might appear that some believers pay far more attention to the appearance of evil by abstaining from certain foods, or beverages than to what goes on in their heart. This list if used for self-examination can be pretty condemning. Jesus was making sure they knew there is no way in their natural strength they could be clean. What man can be completely free of all things on that list? Surely many of those behaviors are not committed in the body of Christ. But Jesus was not listing behaviors; he was enumerating the list of evil thoughts. We may not surely keep ourselves from acting out many of these things, but what about how we think? The point is we cannot ever be totally free of sin, maybe not in deed but surely in thought. Some believers have made the brazen statement, “They do not sin in word, thought, or deed.” That statement alone is sinning, in word, thought and deed. It is arrogant, boastful and prideful not to mention deceitful and full of folly. We simply cannot escape the evil which is within and that is why Jesus came. We can never be clean unless he cleans us, and the way of our cleansing is the cross. His cleansing power is what makes us clean, although we may always be plagued by some of those evil thoughts. Some of them may even be manifested in our behavior from time to time, but we must know we are human and thus subject to failure and that is why we need Jesus. He has said that he has set of free from sin, and that if he did, then we are free indeed. In that he has declared us clean and given us the right to be called sons of God. It is not and never will be based on our words, thoughts, or deeds, but only on what Jesus did for us. We can try to deceive ourselves into thinking we are “Good Christians” because of our adherence to man-made rules and regulations, at least our appearance of adhering to them, but in all reality we will only be made clean by the blood of Christ. Our hope is in Jesus.