But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” Mk 7:20-23
“Thus, He declared all foods clean.” Mk 7:19.
Sin in Ancient Judaism
We begin with the context. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and scribes in Jerusalem, not to the crowds that often surround Him. A theological conversation necessarily follows as these learned Jews observe that some of Jesus’ disciples ate without first carefully washing their hands – an act incompatible with the tradition of the elders passed down through the generations.
In Judaism, sin is missing the mark. While the intent to transgress the moral commandments was a grave sin often punishable by being stoned to death, malicious conduct was not the biggest source of sin.
Outward sources of impurity predominated the nature of sin at the time. Missing the mark then could be unintentional. Yom Kippur, the great penitential Day of Atonement, for this reason, covered only unintentional sins.
Touching a vessel or coin that had been touched by a gentile, not submitting to a Mikvah bath for uncleanliness, eating foods considered unclean, touching a dead body even when a duty to bury a parent was involved – all these missed the mark thus rendering one unclean. As such it was not so much the intent to touch a coin or a corpse, but it was the touched coin or corpse that rendered the person impure.
These external laws were meant to emphasize life and also to separate Jews from those who worshiped false gods. Not unlike how we raise our children even today. We keep them separated from other children who have different values or beliefs so that they grow uncontaminated by immoral values.
A Fundamental Change in the Nature of Sin
The idea then that what defiles us with God comes from within was the whole premise of Jesus’ greatest teaching on the Mount of Beatitudes.
The mental element alone – the true condition of the heart even when no external action followed was nevertheless a sin. While Jesus here lists unchastity and adultery as sins, even lust in the mind is sin. While Jesus lists murder as sin, even the mental anger against another is sin. Further, while Jesus lists theft as sin, even the envious desire of another’s property is sin.
We as body-soul composite beings primarily offend God with our soul, given a will that often desires happiness in forbidden actions even as our intellect knows it to be wrong.
This is the quantum shift that our Messiah sought to teach us. We sin in our thoughts and in our actions in what we do and what we fail to do.
Our Good Works in Perspective
Seen as described above, our external actions often show the condition of our heart, in what we do and also in what we fail to do. Contrast then the mental discernment that leads to giving a homeless man some assistance, with that which decides against it. Have you ever noticed that when you give money to a homeless man, his response is often “God Bless you.” He is witnessing to the likely source of the generosity being grounded in faith.
Therefore, now reading Ephesians 2:8-10:
Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
How often Christians forget verse 10. The word “For” means therefore, informing the Christian of the reason we became part of God’s family. Let us therefore act in love, according to the reason we were created. Cf.: Rom 13:8-10.
