What defiles us?

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Scripture: Matthew 15: 10-11. 15-20 (ESV)

10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”. . . 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Devotion:

            When I first read these words as a child, I thought that I had found a way to get around my mother’s insistence that I wash my hands before meals. I was so dreadfully wrong. It seemed that my mother knew that I had been playing in the dirt and had touched many things that did not make me unclean but simply dirty. (This was in the days before computer gaming and even music television when kids actually got dirty playing outside.) So even my appeal to Jesus’ words fell on deaf ears.

            The Lord here is making the point that the Bible never actually says that you must wash your hands before eating, it was simply an oral law that had been handed down from generation to generation. In this age of the Covid virus many of us have reverted to this tradition as a means of lowering the spread of this virus. We have seen some of us even become Pharisaical in our insistence on hand washing.

            Peter and the disciples in the passage above did not understand what Jesus meant by his relaxing the rules on hand washing. Jesus not so patiently explains that what you have on your hands cannot defile you when you eat. Our defilement comes from the corruption of our own hearts. In our hearts we break all ten of the commandments God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. When we speak, this defilement comes out of us and pollutes those who hear us. We need God’s help to “create in us a clean heart” (Psalm 51:10)

            Only with a heart made clean by God can we live a life that is pleasing to Him and edifying to those around us. Let us pray to God that we would become a people with a pure heart before him.

Prayer:

            Holy and Pure God, we glorify your name today. We thank you that Jesus came to teach us how to live our lives in a way that pleases you. Heal our sinful and corrupt hearts O God, let us seek to live lives filled with your Holy Spirit. Your son Jesus left us with a saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) We long to see you as you really are. Cleanse us O Lord. May we see you in all your glory. Help us to live filled with your Holy Spirit. Amen.

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