Food Can't Do That!

The past two Sundays, we have looked at Jesus’ dialogue with the Pharisees and scribes regarding the traditions of men and the authority they hold compared to the commandments of God and the authority they hold.  Jesus’ point to them and my point to us was that traditions or preferences or opinions of men become sinful if and when we elevate them to having the same authority as God’s Word.

 

Jesus pointed out a specific example of how the Pharisees and scribes were faithful to the tradition of man called “Corban” but were guilty of not honoring their fathers and mothers, the fifth commandment.  Jesus said they were experts at rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep their traditions.  Ultimately, Jesus told them and us that legalism, adding to God’s Word, is sinful.

 

Today, we are still with Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes in Mark 7, and Jesus is going to give some further explanation regarding what defiles us.  The Pharisees and scribes believed that defilement comes from the outside.  Jesus is going to say otherwise.

 

 

 

Exposition

14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!” 

 

In verse 14, Jesus called the multitude of people together to hear His further explanation of defilement.  This included Pharisees and scribes and disciples and others.  In 7:15, we find His main point that all of them desperately needed to understand.

 

Here it is.  There is nothing outside a man that can defile him if it goes into him.  This is true for food or anything else that might be considered unclean. 

 

Was Jesus contradicting what Moses taught in the Law?  After all, Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are all about not eating unclean foods.  Not at all.

 

Understand that no food could make you unclean in Moses’ day or Jesus’ day or in our day.  It was disobedience to the commandments of God that defiled someone then and now. 

 

Jesus went on to say something very similar.  The things which come out of a man, specifically his heart are what defile him.  However, the Twelve Disciples didn’t really understand because this contrary to what they thought and what were the traditions of men that had been handed down to them.  Therefore, they asked for further explanation.

 

 

17 When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.

 

Verse 17 probably took place at Peter’s house.  It was there that His disciples asked for further explanation of what He had said.

 

By the way, it is probably not inconsequential that Jesus further explained His teachings in a house.  That was probably a foreshadowing of the body of Christ gathering together in the Lord’s House, the Church, to hear and understand His Word. 

 

That is still true today.  Yes, we all have Bibles and the Spirit, if you’ve been born again, and you are to learn God’s Word on your own on a daily basis.  However, you should also make coming to the Lord’s House on the Lord’s Day a top priority in further understanding His Word.  You don’t get that the ballfields or golf course or lake or deer stand.   

 

 

18 So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him…

 

In verse 18, we see some of Jesus’ frustration.  He expected His disciples to know better, but like the Pharisees, they just don’t get it.  Again, He reminded them of what He said earlier.  Whatever goes into a man from the outside cannot defile him. 

 

 

19 because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”

 

Verse 19 is His rationale.  The reason that nothing going in the body from the outside can defile a man is because food goes into the stomach as opposed to the heart and is eliminated or literally empties into the latrine or sewer.

 

Then Mark added to that with this thought.  Jesus was declaring all foods clean.  This was perfectly normal for Mark to do since he was following Peter’s eye-witness testimony, and in Acts 10, the Lord told this truth to Peter for the first time. 

 

Acts 10 is the vision of a sheet coming down out of heaven and the Lord speaking to Peter telling him to kill and eat whatever he so desired.  See Acts 10:9-16.

 

9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”  14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”  15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.

20 And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.

 

In verse 20, Jesus again told the disciples what He told the Pharisees back in 7:15.  It is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man because what comes out of the mouth is really what comes out of the heart.

 

In other words, physical pollution cannot result in spiritual pollution.  Physical pollution can only pollute you physically but not spiritually.

 

And then in 7:21-22, Jesus gave twelve examples of what comes out of our hearts that defiles us.  The first seven are plural and mean these are repeated actions.  The last six are singular and are attitudes.

 

 

21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

 

1. Evil thoughts: self-explanatory;
2. Adulteries: sexual immorality between those who are married;
3. Fornications: sexual immorality with those who aren’t married;
4. Murders: self-explanatory;
5. Thefts: self-explanatory;
6. Covetousness: longing or lusting for what is not yours to have;
7. Wickedness-intentional evil;
8. Deceit-fraud;
9. Lewdness: lack of self-control specifically with sexuality;
10. An evil eye: stinginess;
11. Blasphemy: speaking evil of God or others;
12. Pride: arrogance;
13. Foolishness: moral and spiritual insensitivity.

 

 

23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

 

Now for the third time and in a summary statement, Jesus declared all of these things evil as they come from man’s heart and defile him.

 

 

 

Conclusion

First, as a follower of Christ, we must guard our hearts.  A computer science acronym that can be traced all the way back to the 1950’s and 1960’s is GIGO.  It means garbage in, garbage out.  Computers don’t produce garbage or errors unless there is an error or garbage in the programming or what is put in them.  

 

The same is true for us.  When take in what is unholy from the internet and social media and television and the company we keep, we can expect unholy to come out in our personal behavior.  That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 12:34.

 

Matthew 12:34, For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

 

Therefore, we must guard our hearts.  See Proverbs 4:23.

 

Proverbs 4:23, Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

 

Secondly, if you’re here this morning and evil is constantly coming out of your heart, you need to know that your heart is evil according to Jeremiah 17:9.

 

Jeremiah 17:9, 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”

 

The solution to your problem is not trying harder.  The solution to your problem is a spiritual heart transplant.  See 2 Corinthians 5:17.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17, 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

 

That can happen for you today by admitting that you’re a sinner.  Believing that Jesus died on the cross and in your place for your sins, and calling on Him to save you.