The Heart Condition & Life Expression

Passages: Mark 7.9-13; Proverbs 26.23-26

23 Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart. 24 Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; 25 when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; 26 though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

Mark 7:14–23 ESV

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.” 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.) 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.”

The Ins and Outs...

The Mind/Heart and the Actions of Life

2 views- 2 Theologies = 2 different focus points

Clean Hands or Clean Hearts?

Mark 7:19–23 ESV

19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Mark: An Introduction and Commentary xi. A Further Clash with Judaism (7:1–23)

19. The outspoken words of Jesus might be paraphrased as saying that ‘the mind and not the body is the danger-point for man’. The last clause of this verse, he declared all foods clean, is best taken as an explanatory comment on the words of Jesus by the evangelist: we could paraphrase it as ‘by saying this, he was abolishing all distinction between ceremonially clean and unclean foods.’54 This generalized interpretation is born out by the additional negative clause in Matthew 15:20 which does not appear in Mark: ‘but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man’. If we see the interpretative comment in Mark as coming from the preaching of Peter, then it takes a new meaning in view of Peter’s vision before the visit to Cornelius (Acts 11:5ff.). God had taught Peter that Gentiles, who did not keep the ceremonial law, were still to be acceptable in God’s sight (Acts 10:35), and were therefore ‘clean’. Even if this did not come through the Petrine tradition, its relevance to the Roman church and the Gentile mission is obvious.

20–23. Jesus here (as more explicitly in Matt. 5:28) makes no distinction between sins of thought and sins of deed, unlike the law of Moses, which, like any other law codes, can take cognizance only of outward acts, not the mental attitudes which ultimately find expression in such acts. The one possible exception is the tenth commandment, which forbids coveting. Of course, in view of the fact that the central principle of the Mosaic law was love (Exod. 20:6 ‘those who love me’), ultimately the law was basically concerned with attitudes as well. See 12:28–31 for the summary of the law given by Jesus in terms of love towards God and love towards neighbour.

Recognize that our actions come from the heart. Recognize that our expressions come from the inner core. Recognize that we can express good only from a good heart. Recognize that God desires inner cleanness to that we can live out cleanness.

Not only was ceremonial law changed by Jesus, so was one’s motive of living was changed.