As I consider what it means to live a pure life in Christ, I realize that it all really comes down to one thing… the heart. God looks at our heart, because it is the heart that truly reveals who we are. The Bible teaches us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And Jesus reminds us that it isn’t what we put into our body that makes us clean or unclean, but it is what comes out of the heart that makes us clean or unclean. So, everything starts there. Jesus goes on to explain in Mark 7:20-23:
He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”
One biblical proverb tells us to guard our heart for it is the wellspring of life. I believe the heart can be cultivated and molded through good things or evil things. We feed our heart good things when we think on heavenly things, as the Bible tells us to do. When we consider things like scripture from the Holy Bible, God’s blessings in our life, or our future with him after we die, our heart flourishes. But when we think on sinful things, or indulge in things that corrupt our heart, it births sin. So, as Jesus says, it isn’t what physically goes into a man that makes him unclean, such as the food he eats or whether he washes his hands before eating, but it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.
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It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean. There may be sinful things in our environment, which we can’t control, that find their way into our hearts; things we see and hear by just going about our daily lives even if we’d rather avoid them. And there may also be sinful things that we willingly put in our hearts; things that may influence our heart and make us callous and sinful. In Mark 7, Jesus gives us a list of evil things that can come out of a man’s heart. But I believe that if we are living right before God and man, good things can come out as well. So, I encourage you to guard your heart.
