From the heart

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

FROM THE HEART

Matt 15:10-20

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. 11 What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'"  12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" 13 He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."  15 Peter said, "Explain the parable to us." 16 "Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. 17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'" 

NIV

We should have included the complete teaching of Jesus when we dealt with just verses ten and eleven as he explains all of his reasons for that saying. Our consumption of the mouth simply exits the body, but the thoughts of our heart are what comes out of our mouth. As a man thinks, so is he. He goes on to explain many of the thoughts that are in the mind of people, which ultimately cause them to be unclean. Again this is disturbing in that it seems at times our thoughts are uncontrollable. This is when that fruit of self-control needs to be at its finest. However it would also seem that Jesus is making the point that those who are unclean are those who produce the action from the thought. That would agree with the progression of sin as outlined by James.

James 1:13-15

13 When tempted , no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

NIV

The temptation is always contained within our thoughts first. It would seem it is impossible for the finest of a person, the purest, the most holy to live completely free of some type of evil desire. We are not sure if the list Jesus gives as evil thoughts is exhaustive or just an idea of types of thinking that would lead to being unclean because those thoughts would then lead to the action. How can we ever escape all thoughts that are not only pure, even though we have been admonished to think pure thoughts?

Phil 4:8-9

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure , whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

NIV

This might be a bit out of context as we would have to know what was going on in Philippi to know why Paul told them to think on these things. Yet it still speaks to us today about keeping control of our thoughts being careful not any evil thoughts to take possession of our body, which would mean we would be drawn away, enticed by our temptations into action. Sure we might not commit murder, adultery and theft, but there is always slander, which translate into gossip, which has been concealed as a prayer request for another. But the point again comes back to our thoughts need to be subject to Christ. We are going to have thoughts that are not pure from time to time and that is when we need to put them in their place, under the blood of Jesus.

Jesus also includes this idea about a blind man leading the blind. He was referring to the Pharisees and how they act as they are holy men of God, but are in fact blinded to the truth and those who follow them are being blinded as well. This certainly speaks to many of the false teachers we have with us today just as there were in the early church.

Titus 1:10-11

10 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach — and that for the sake of dishonest gain.

NIV

It is easy for us to see those who preach and teach just enough of the truth, however a twisted type of the truth, for their own personal gain, becoming wealthy on the backs of their followers. But this can also speak to the everyday believer like us. It is important that we do not become blind guides, pretending to be perfect Christians when we are not. It is easy to look good, smell good and still have bad lingering within. We might want to put up that façade so others think us to be holy rollers, pure as the driven snow, without a hint of that crimson red sin. But the fact remains we cannot have a blind eye to the sin that lurks from within. We identify with the Apostle Paul in this case. Those things I hate, I do while the things I want to do, I do not. There is a war that wages within us. We want to do good and yet we do not do all the good we should. We do not want to do evil, we what to control those thoughts that are not good, but yet there they are, and the evil is right there with us. If nothing else we need to be honest with ourselves and in all reality with others, so as to not be blind guides, for being a blind guide also makes us unclean. This is seen in our lips speaking words from a lying heart.  The Pharisees were doing just that, see how holy we are? See how we do everything according to the Law, how perfectly we follow God. Yet they were not. We need to make sure we are not trying to look so perfect, when in fact we are not. This is the truth we need to have from the heart.