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 it is what we speak out of our mouths that defiles us because when we speak it, we have “taken” a thought that wasn’t ours. To take a thought is to accept it or adopt it as if it were your own. Thoughts to say things that can defile us generally creep in due to our negligence in guarding our hearts {minds} diligently like we should.
The next natural question then is, what exactly does it mean to be “defiled”? In my mind I use to think of defilement sort of like being dirty and tarnishing my salvation somehow. Like I needed to have someone wash my feet because defilement meant I was not worthy to approach God or walk around representing Him. That is not what it means.
In our study verses, Jesus talks about what “defiles” a man. The word “defiles” is the Greek word “Koinoo” and it simply means “to make common.” Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament words unveils the meaning slightly more in that it states that this word signifies “many, numerous, wide, far reaching.” The implication then is that defilement makes you a “common” thing or a “defiled” thing. More precisely, that activity is what “everybody” does or is. In other words, God has sanctified us and told us to “come out from among them and be separate.” Thus, when we take a thought that sounds like what the world would have said by our saying it, then we sound common. We sound just like “everybody else.”
This is what it is to be “defiled”. It means essentially that the world cannot distinguish between itself and us- the body of Christ because we sound and act the same. This is against the heart of God to be sure, but it does not destroy our salvation or even our access to God for grace and forgiveness. When and if we defile ourselves, we simply have to repent to God and move on. For defilement does not disqualify salvation!
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