“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” Matthew 15:19-20 ESV1
Read Matthew 15:1-2, 10-20 & Mark 7:1-5, 14-22
My son was born with a heart defect. Because of his condition, we learned that some of the bacteria which dwell in one’s mouth would like to thrive in one’s heart. Bacteria that causes little problem in the mouth can cause serious, life-threatening infections in the heart. To prevent such complications, when my son was young, he always had to take an antibiotic before he went to the dentist. Similarly, not only does a mouth and heart connection exist in the physical realm; it exists in the spiritual realm, as well.
“The Pharisees gathered to [Jesus], with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of His disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked [Jesus], ‘Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ And [Jesus] called the people to Him … and said to them, ‘Hear Me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.’ … ‘Whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’ (Thus, He declared all foods clean.) And He said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person’” (Mark 7:1-5, 14-22).
The words of Jesus recorded in this passage would have undoubtedly shocked those who originally heard them. To protect His people and set them apart from their pagan neighbors, the LORD had set up strict guidelines for cleanliness. Though Jesus was probably misunderstood here, He was not advocating eating with dirty hands. He was pointing to something far more significant—living with dirty hearts. God’s original intention in setting up cleanliness standards was both physical and spiritual. The state of one’s heart is the most crucial characteristic of a person. In the Scriptures, there are nearly nine hundred verses that use the word heart. There are many more that point to the heart through synonyms, actions, and attitudes.
What God requires is all about the heart:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’” (Mark 12:30). If you “trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. [If] in all your ways [you] acknowledge Him, …He will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). God promises if you “delight yourself in the LORD, … He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). And “’blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’” (Matthew 5:8). Additionally, God strictly warns, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23 NIV2).
God judges a person based on the state of his/her heart:
“’The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole Earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him’” (2 Chronicles 16:9a). Though “every way of a man is right in his own eyes, … the LORD weighs the heart” (Proverbs 21:2). “‘The LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:7b). “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
But human hearts are not as they should be:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, … [yet God promises,] ‘I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds’” (Jeremiah 17:9-11). “As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man” (Proverbs 27:19). And one’s words reflect the condition of his/her heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil … by your words, you will be condemned’” (Matthew 12:34b-37). But whose heart is pure enough to produce the right words necessary to be judged righteous?
Suppressing the symptom doesn’t heal the sickness:
Controlling the tongue is not the answer. “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body … The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things … the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell … no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing” (James 3:2, 6, 8-10a). How is this so?
God did not create humans with sick hearts and unrighteous tongues:
“The LORD God took the man, [Adam, whom He had created] and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded him, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). When Adam and Eve took that first bite of the forbidden fruit, they contracted the disease of the sin-sick heart. They passed this aliment onto their children. Every human since has been infected with this fatal disease.
The sin-sick heart has caused much grief for both God and mankind:
Humans hadn’t been on Earth for very long before “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So, the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (Genesis 6:5-7).
But God was pleased with the heart of one man:
“Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). Noah believed the LORD when He said He would send a world-wide flood to punish humanity. And Noah obeyed the LORD and built a humungous boat that saved his family and every species of animal from extinction. After the flood subsided, “Noah built an altar to the LORD and… [prepared] burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done’” (Genesis 8:20-21).
Creation was saved, but the hearts of mankind hadn’t changed:
Through Noah, the human race was built up again, but the sin-sickness remained in the hearts of all of his descendants. Yet, not only did God keep His promise not to destroy humans; He searched for a way to bless all mankind through a people He could call His own. “‘God … chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. [The LORD] found his heart faithful …, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite … And [GOD] … kept [His] promise, for [He is] righteous’” (Nehemiah 9:7-8). Through Abraham, God built the nation of Israel. Unfortunately, Abraham’s descendants were not faithful like he had been.
So, the LORD allowed His people to fall:
For four-hundred years, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. But “God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham” (Exodus 2:24). God rose up a deliverer by the name of Moses. Through many signs and wonders, the LORD, through Moses, freed Israel from slavery and eventually brought them into the land He had promised. Then the LORD took it upon Himself to teach His people how to please Him. Through Moses, the LORD gave His people His Law.
Promises of blessing and warnings of cursing were intended to encourage obedience to God’s Law:
Time and time again, the LORD warned to His people in various ways, “‘If you will indeed obey My commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And He will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you’” (Deuteronomy 11:13-17). “All [Israel] answered together and said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do’” (Exodus 19:8a).
But God’s people did not keep their promise:
“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served [false gods] … They abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger … So, the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He gave them over to plunderers … And He sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies … The hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them … Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways” (Judges 2:11-12, 14-16, 18-19).
But God didn’t give up on His people:
“‘The LORD … sought out a man after His own heart, and the LORD … commanded him to be prince over His people’” (1 Samuel 13:14). This man’s name was David, a shepherd boy whom God rose up to be the King of Israel. David’s heart was pure, and he desired to be right with God. David prayed, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). And God promised David, “‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before Me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel’” (1 Kings 2:4).
Yet, the kings of Israel did not pay close attention to their way:
Many “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel … [They] erected altars for Baal and … Asherah … and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them … [and even] built altars [to false gods] in the House of the LORD… burned [their] son[s] as … offering[s] and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. [They] did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger” (2 Kings 2-6).
The last straw was when Manasseh “carved [an] image of Asherah [and] set [up it] in the House of which the LORD said to David and to Solomon his son, ‘In this House, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that My servant Moses commanded them.’ But they did not listen, and Manasseh led [the people] astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel” (2 Kings 21:7-9).
“And the LORD said by His servants the prophets, ‘Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle … And I will forsake the remnant of My heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day’” (2 Kings 21:10-12, 14-15). God gave up His people into the hands of Babylon, who destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews captive.
Yet, the LORD still patiently waited for their repentance:
God gave His people many chances to turn from evil and back to Him. “‘Yet even now,’ [declared] the LORD, ‘return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster” (Joel 2:12-13). But the LORD’s people continually struggled with staying right with their God.
Because of sin-sick hearts, repentance could not be sustained:
So, God devised a plan to cure the human heart permanently. The LORD told His people, “’I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules’” (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Again, God said, “‘And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My rules and obey them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD’” (Ezekiel 11:19-21).
To all who were willing to turn from evil, God gave a Gift:
“’For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’” (John 3:16). The One God gave was Jesus who said, “‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me’” (John 14:1). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
If one repents and believes, he/she will receive healing for his/her sin-sick heart:
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, [those] God, … will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). He will “create in [the one who repents and believes in Jesus] a clean heart, … and renew a right spirit within [that one]” (Psalm 51:10). The new and right spirit is the Holy Spirit who establishes the Believers’ “hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). The Holy Spirit gives “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, [which] will guard [Believers’] hearts … [and] minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
The Holy Spirit prevents the human heart from being infected again by sin:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come … For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17 & 21). The Holy Spirit purifies and fills the once sin-sick heart with His character. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). Believers can confidently say, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).
There is only One who saves and One who purifies:
No human can ever be righteous enough to overcome his/her own sin-sick heart. No human could ever be pure enough to prevent others from inheriting a heart full of the disease of sin. Ultimately, there is only one Faithful One, one Deliverer, one Teacher, one Promise Keeper, one Judge, one Shepherd, one King, one Servant, one Prophet, one Pure of Heart, and one Sacrifice great enough to buy what was needed to heal the human from its fatal disease—Jesus Christ. And there is only one Spiritual Antibiotic powerful enough to eradicate the sickness of sin in the human heart—the Holy Spirit. Have you taken the Antibiotic God has provided for you? With it, have you become a new creation? By the words coming from your mouth, are you now proving yourself righteous?
The other day, I was video chatting with my daughter and my two-year-old granddaughter on Facebook Messenger. As we chatted, my granddaughter was playing with the filters; she was particularly enamored by one that made it appear as if she spewed out colorful hearts whenever she opened her mouth. My daughter, speaking to her daughter, said, “Look, it is like when Jesus is in your heart, love comes out of your mouth just like those colorful hearts!” That is what I am talking about. In words a two-year-old can understand: When Jesus is in your heart, love comes out of your mouth.
If love is not coming out of someone’s mouth, I doubt that Jesus is in his/her heart (see 1 John 4:20). When you hear slander, pride, foolishness, and deceit coming out of someone’s mouth and see evil, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, sensuality, and envy displayed in someone’s life, watch that you do not become judgmental. Remember: “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart” (Ephesians 4:18). That someone is only ill with the same sick heart condition you once had.
It is because my son had a medical condition that he developed a concern for those who are hurting, and he is currently pursuing a medical career. It is because we know that we once were desperately sick and have been mercifully cured, that Christians should be the most gracious and compassionate people on Earth. “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9b-11). Those who are forgiven much, love much (see Luke 7:47). If you have been forgiven and healed from your sin-sickness, love should be coming out of your mouth, and love should be filling your prayers for those who still suffer from the spiritual infirmity.
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, emphasis mine. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God. Any emphasis in the above Scriptures is mine.
2 Scripture quotations marked with NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.