THE INTERNAL CAUSE…Bill Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Mark 7:14-23 ESV

¹⁴ And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 

¹⁵ 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.” 

¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁷ And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 

¹⁸ And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 

¹⁹ since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 

²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 

²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 

²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 

²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Defile – To make common; hence in a ceremonial way to render unholy, to be polluted, unclean

The conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees was one of sharp disagreement.  In VSS 6, 7 He quotes a statement from Isaiah which is a blatant accusation of hypocrisy.  But this is not the critical issue.  That which is so critical is the issue of sin and the responsibility for its cause.

The critical statements are in 7:14 and 7:20. First, the environment cannot cause sin.  Second, sin issues from the heart, which is the origin of all manners of evil, cf James 1:14-15.  The responsibility for sin is placed squarely on the person committing it.

The foolishness of shifting this to an outside source is revealed in such a silly excuse as to be comical by Aaron in Exodus 32:21-25. Note VS 24.

²¹ And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” 

²² And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 

²³ For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 

²⁴ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

 

We may see this and even smile at it but how often are our excuses no better than Adam’s.  Genesis 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  We will be so bold as to blame God for our sin if we have no one else.

The Lord Jesus emphatically removes that old subterfuge.  He, with the greatest clarity, puts the issue in the place where it belongs.  All those evils come from within.  Mark 7:23.

It is not as though you cannot be a Christian and be as foolish as Aaron was.  He was a believer when he failed and when he refused his part in his fall.  The problem is that growth stops here.

It is not until you are ready to find the cause of your sin, “from within out of the heart,” that you are able to repent and begin to grow in spiritual knowledge.

It is when each of us recognizes that though others may be the occasion for our sin, they are not the cause of it.  It is the evil that ever resides in our own hearts that is the cause.

In the brutal honesty that is characteristic of him, John states in his first epistle 1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

There may be enough honesty to not deny sin, but not enough truth to take full responsibility for it.  The failure to accept full responsibility, and to “Adamize”, is a failure in honest repentance.  Christian growth is stunted.  In truth God is blamed for the sin and self is justified.  The excuse of the child, “I didn’t do it.  The cookie fell out of the jar and I ate it so it wouldn’t spoil on the floor”, is no worse than the dishonest believer.

Please read Luke 18:13