Daily Readings From the Life of Christ Volumes 1-3 by John MacArthur

Author:John MacArthur [MacArthur, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8024-8146-7
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 2008-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE PRINCIPLE OF SPIRITUAL DEFILEMENT, PART 1

After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” —MATT. 15:10–11

As elsewhere, Jesus based this illustration on His hearers’ everyday experiences. Spiritual defilement concerns what’s on the inside, not the outside. Thus Jesus told the people—and He tells us—that no spiritual defilement results from what a person eats. Hand washing before eating has nothing to do with making us morally undefiled. The crucial thing is the sinful heart, which eventually sends evil out of the mouth to defile the person.

Jesus’ words should not have shocked His Jewish audience. Like the Sermon on the Mount, these were not new truths but simply reinforcements of what the Word always taught. Likely almost everyone in the crowd knew the story of God’s choosing David to replace Saul as Israel’s king. As Samuel considered Jesse’s sons, the prophet thought Eliab surely would be the new king. “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’” (1 Sam. 16:7).

Jesus is concerned with what a person thinks and does, not merely what he or she says. He simply echoes here the principles God declared to Moses: “What does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…. So circumcise your heart” (Deut. 10:12, 16).

ASK YOURSELF

As you gauge the condition of your heart, what pleases you? We’re often asked to be honest about our sin, to admit its presence and defilement. And we do. But what are the areas where Christ is indeed purifying you, gaining victory over long-held positions of sin and resistance?

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