Mark 7:14-23 - Guarding our thought

Turning from the Pharisees and scribes to the crowd, the Lord gave a radical statement and urged the people to listen carefully. This was within the earshot of the Pharisees. He wanted them to listen to it as well. He said, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him, but the things which proceed out of the man are what will defile the man [If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.] 

What exactly was the Lord doing? Here the Lord used the occasion to show the inherent nature of man. He showed that a person’s defilement is never caused by what goes into him from the exterior. A person’s defilement is caused by His fallen nature. It’s pointless to be overly concerned with the mundane issues of life if the heart is not dealt with.

The disciples were also puzzled by His statement, so when they had left the crowd and were with the Lord in the house, they asked Him about His statement. They referred to it as a riddle. Hence, they received a rebuke from the Lord before He went on to explain to them.

The concern of the Lord was not their stomach but the heart. Food clean or unclean, eaten with washed or unwashed hands, are unimportant. For whatever is eaten would go into the stomach and eventually pass out. They never go to the heart. But what’s inherent in the heart is critical. It is the wellspring of one’s actions in life. Sinful thoughts that result in the sinful acts in life originate from one’s wicked thoughts. So moral purity is never just a matter of what one does but also a matter of what one dwells upon in one’s mind. The Lord’s point is this: whether it’s sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, acts of coveting, evil deeds, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride or foolishness, the root of each can be traced to the thought and intention of one’s heart.

Can we understand why Proverbs 4:23 exhorts us to, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life”?  What do we think about most of the time? Our emotion and actions are the products of what our minds dwell upon all the time. Let’s be renewed in our minds so that we will come to grips with the will of God for us, that which is not only good and acceptable but also perfect.