A Heart Issue

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

A HEART ISSUE

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

As we have already dealt in some sense with this concept, but looked at it in the sense of traditions which make us unclean, rather than food and drink, we need to consider this in that sense of actual food and drink in compared to that which is in the heart of man. Jesus makes it clear that all foods are clean. The Law declared that certain foods were not clean, but as we can look back, God may have done this as a health issue, or just to prove man cannot live by the law, and thus needs a Savior. Either way, Jesus made it clear that we should not consider anything forbidden to eat, or for that matter drink. Of course, some denominations have restrictions on certain liquids for ministries if they want to be credentialed. Other denominations have no such rule. Nevertheless, the truth regarding all this is that Jesus did not make any rules about anything that enters a person’s mouth. He was concerned about what came out of our mouths. Of course, traditions fall into that category as we make then up in our hearts, and speak them as though they are the gospel. However, Jesus is talking here about the condition of our hearts. The difference here is that all those evils that Jesus enumerates are in the heart of men who have yet to come to him. Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we would think that he has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. That is our sins, the evil that had resided in our hearts has been forgiven. But then we would also think that because we have Christ in our hearts, there would be no room for any of those things he mentions. But, the fact is that we are not completely free of sin and we do have some issues within our hearts. Still, as we look at that list we would have to say it could be possible that some, certainly not all, could slip into our hearts if we are not careful, such as envy, greed, slander, which is gossip. Arrogance is also possible when it comes to thinking we are so spiritual, or better than someone else. That would also go along with deceit, as we would be putting in a façade in an effort to deceive others into thinking we are such a ‘Good Christian’ when we have internal struggles with sin. The fact is that we have to be careful not to think of ourselves more than we should. We are sinners saved by grace, and yes we make every effort to live in a manner that pleases the Lord. We do not want those things in our hearts, we want to avoid such thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. We keep our focus on Jesus, keeping our eyes on him, the author and finisher of our faith. Without Jesus, we would be hopelessly trapped with evil residing in our hearts. But evil has been vanquished, Jesus has overcome the world and He is in us, so we too have overcome the world, overcome evil, and now we live in Christ and He in us, as we are one with Him as He is one with the Father. Still, our heart wants what it wants on occasion and we have to continue to be mindful of Jesus’s words.