Mark 7:1-23
The Heart Defiles
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 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]
17 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.”
John 3:16-18
Jesus Did Not Come to Condemn Us
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Matthew 9:9-13
Jesus Calls on Sinners
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Colossians 2:6-15
Spiritual Fullness in Christ
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Throughout the Bible we learn that the heart is the Spiritual Center of our soul and our closeness to God and getting near His Presence...Jesus teaches us that it is in our hearts that defile and are unclean...Jesus tells us that it is from within, and 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...
Jesus does not teach us this to condemn and indict mankind, because He came to save us...In fact, St. John writes that Jesus did not come to earth to condemn us but to save us...Save us from our very selves...Jesus knows humanity and man's tendencies...As you read the news you can see that we (who are) mankind fill the news with sin, violence, adultery, theft, greed, deceit, and all those things the Jesus speaks of...When I first read the quote from G. K. Chesterton when he was ask by a London newspaper "what's wrong with the world?"...His response was "I am."...I thought this touched on Jesus' teachings of the human heart and our tendencies...I am the problem when I use reckless and careless words toward others, I am the problem when I am not charitable to others, or when someone treats me what I consider wrong...The problem is me, as Chesterton so rightly points out...His answer is so simple and yet so true...We are the problem and it starts with our hearts and our human tendencies...And if one does not believe this check the daily news headlines...
But Jesus came and to call on sinners...He gives sinner's hope...He gives our heart's this Great Hope...St. Paul writes that we were dead in our sins until He came...God has made us alive in His Son...God has forgiven us for all our sins, by cancelling our sin debts and we are no longer condemned...He has taken away each our our sins by nailing to the cross, and making a public obstacle out of the powers and authorities who deny Him and who do not believe in Him...But Jesus has triumphed over everyone and everything by dying on the cross and then resurrecting...Our getting close to His Father and to God's Presence is not based on what we have done and do...It is based on our belief and faith in Jesus...When we receive Him we become Spiritually full...He is our mediator and entrance to being close to God, and to His Presence...It is nothing we had done or did, but it is the worthiness of Jesus and the life He lived, died, and resurrected that sets us free from our sinful ways...