Wednesday, May 4, 2011

[Durruck]

Mark 7:15-23, NIV:

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

What Mark recorded regarding Jesus' teachings here are important to all believers. The lesson is multifaceted, but the point I'd like to focus on today is actually the part that most people overlook. Many people talk about how the dietary restrictions of the OT no longer apply to us, but it's equally important to recognize the other restriction that was reinforced.

It is not what we put into our bodies (food-related) that makes us unclean, but what comes out. He's not talking about snot, feces, and urine. He's talking about the condition of our hearts and minds - and the things that we think, say, and do.

In all situations, we need to make sure that we are tempering ourselves, focusing on the situation in a way that is pleasing and honorable to God. Whether we are on the basketball court or in a match of Team Fortress, whether we are winning or losing, regardless of how far superior or inferior our skill is compared to others, we must temper our responses.

 

[Abba San]

Nice cross-over. Thanks.

I thought for sure he was talking about snot, though. It is allergy season here in California.