Mark 7:15-
“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."
Mark 7:20-
“And He {Jesus} said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.’”
Yesterday I shared with you that based on the above verses and some basic Bible principles that; First, not all thoughts that we have are ours; second, we “take” thoughts when we “say” thoughts; and third, defilement only comes when we “take” a defiling thought as listed above. I further shared with you that God has reconstructed my theology with respect to the statement made by our Lord Jesus Christ that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” {Mark 12:34}
For the sake of sound conversation, let us first understand the meaning of the word “heart” as used in this verse. The word “heart” here is the Greek word “kardia” and Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament words gives us the understanding that it refers not only to the physical organ but also to the mind, will, and emotions of the human. For our discussion, we will limit this definition to just refer to the mind when we speak of the heart.
Proverbs 4:23 admonishes us to “keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Thus, if we are discussing the heart simply as the mind, then this verse could be read as “protect your mind diligently because out of it come quickly the issues of life.” How exactly would we guard or “keep” our hearts {minds}? Jesus our Lord gave us the answer to this in Mark 4:24 and Luke 8:18 when He warned us to {a} beware of what we hear {Mark 4:24} and {b} beware of how we hear.{Luke 8:18} One reason we are cautioned in this way is because what we hear and how we hear it enters our minds. We are responsible to diligently discern what and how we hear. We have to weigh what we hear against the Word of God and we have to weigh how we hear it against how it affects our emotions. For instance, if we watch a television show that has an abundance of cuss words and in the show they kidnap a child, we can discern that the cuss words go against the Word of God because He commands that we let filthy language be put away from us.{Colossians 3:8} Further, we can weigh the kidnapping with righteous judgment by discerning that it makes our hearts grieve and grief is a physical response to a spiritual wrong done. However, if we watch the show and do not take the time to diligently guard what has just gone into our minds, then when we are in a situation as I was with that horse, the temptation for us to cuss might arise. Think of it this way, if we never hear a word or have never heard of a particular evil act, we cannot speak the word or perform the act ourselves.
With respect to our study verse, I would venture to say that most American’s in the 21st century have no idea what “an evil eye” really is besides just a threatening gaze. Because most of us do not know what it actually is, I would further submit to you that most of us have not engaged in the act of really giving someone “an evil eye.” {I am not going to tell you what it is!} However, most of us have either been accused of or have accused others of giving the evil eye when someone is very angry with someone else. I have said all of this to say that when we think of “the abundance of the heart” we must think more in terms of the words and thoughts that we have allowed ourselves to see and hear instead of the words and thoughts that we have way down inside of us. Yesterday I told you that God told me that I was already clean and so if that is true, and it is, then I can’t have all of those wicked thoughts inside of me. Therefore, I submit to you that when Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, He meant specifically that out of the overflow of what you allow yourself to hear and see and how you allow yourself to react to what you hear and see is what will give you thoughts that will cause you to speak and once spoken, then you are defiled.
In my next email, I will discuss what it means to be defiled….it’s different than you think it is.
To be continued….again…..
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