How Do You Measure Your Heart?

That Which Defiles - Mark 7

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16]  After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?19 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.) 20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Jesus continues to confront the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  In the beginning of the chapter the Pharisees chide Jesus and his disciples because they do not wash their hands ceremonially before eating.  Jesus uses this opportunity to teach about true purity.  Purity comes from the inside a person and not from the outside.  He is not saying that everything we put into our body is good for us, but the state of a person's heart is not defined by things that come from the outside.  For Jesus, purity of heart is an "inside job".  

The Pharisees were good at judging people from the outside, yet their hearts were as "black as coal".  If the disciples were unclear about what he meant, he gives them several examples of what he is talking out.  Jesus gives them a list of things that come from within a person that are what make a person unclean.  Notice it is a long list.  It covers just about every evil impulse we have.  Some have more of these evil thoughts than others but they all come from our sinful nature. Jesus goes deeper than outward sin, he looks at where it comes from the heart. Remember "heart" in the New Testament is not as much about feelings as one's will.  So these are not only evil thoughts but also lead to impure actions.  

The bottom line is we are all on a level playing field when it comes to these matters.  On any given day these thoughts can plague us more so or less so.  Most importantly they show us our need for Christ.  But the Pharisees thought that the rituals on the outside made them clean before God and judged others condition based on their subjective opinions.  If Jesus is so interested our heart condition it might be good for us to examine it.

We have all sorts of machines that measure how our physical heart is doing, but it is much harder to measure what Jesus is referring to.  In a sense only God knows our true heart condition. Even we may be unaware of it at times.  The letter of Hebrews says, 

"For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires." Hebrews 4:12

Spend some time right now honestly assessing your heart condition.  Look at the attitudes of the heart Jesus mentions in verses 21-22 and do your own assessment. Then repeat the prayer of King David in Psalm 51

"Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."