Mar 7:21-23 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord wants to warn the crowd of the depraved teaching of the Pharisees and scribes. He calls them to Him again. With power of attorney, He says: “Listen to Me, all of you.” When He speaks, man must listen. Wise is the one who listens attentively and wants to understand the meaning of what He says. This teaching is extremely important. It is about the difference between the Word of God and the teachings of men. This difference must be brought out clearly with all its might, as a clear warning against the pitfall of tradition. Everything a man eats comes from God and cannot defile him. Man may enjoy it – with the exception of blood and what is strangled ( ). Man without God uses it in the wrong way. He does not think of God and therefore does not thank Him for that food (cf. ). When he eats, he thinks only of his own needs. This selfishness and covetousness is what comes out of man and that defiles him. The Lord concludes His speech with a call to each of His listeners personally to take His words to heart. After He has taught the crowd, He comes into the house. The house represents the familiar atmosphere of His dealings with His disciples. There He teaches them further. The disciples ask Him what they have seen as a parable. Because He has spoken in clear words, without using pictures, He reproaches them because of their lack of understanding. Surely they should understand that man cannot be defiled if he eats what God has given. It comes to him from outside. ”Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food” ( ). This is how God instituted it in the creation of man. He has also regulated the digestion in the body, whereby all excess can leave the body in the toilet. With this statement the Lord Jesus declares in a general sense that all food is clean. His concern is to make it clear that evil is not in food, but in man. This is a harsh word, both for man who thinks he is doing everything with good intentions and for the hypocrite who can think of nothing but outer cleanness. The cause is in the deceitful heart of man. He does not know his own heart, but the Lord knows it completely ( ). Here speaks the One Who knows the heart. He knows that all evil begins with “evil thoughts”. This makes man fully responsible for all subsequent acts, of which the Lord first mentions “fornication”. All these evil deeds cause enormous damage to others and also to man himself who does them. Above all, they are sins against God Who wants man to serve Him with all his heart. But it turns out that in man’s evil heart there is nothing for Him. The things the Lord mentions contain both mind and deeds, for those evil deeds have their origin in the heart. He calls all the things He has called “evil things”. There is nothing good in these things, nothing that connects with God, nothing that comes from Him. Because of these evil things, man becomes unclean. This means that a man without God is unclean and that the believer who does one of these evil things becomes unclean because of it. Only confession of it makes man clean, for he may know that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin ( ).

‏ Mark 7:21-23

Education About Defilement

The Lord wants to warn the crowd of the depraved teaching of the Pharisees and scribes. He calls them to Him again. With power of attorney, He says: “Listen to Me, all of you.” When He speaks, man must listen. Wise is the one who listens attentively and wants to understand the meaning of what He says. This teaching is extremely important. It is about the difference between the Word of God and the teachings of men. This difference must be brought out clearly with all its might, as a clear warning against the pitfall of tradition.

Everything a man eats comes from God and cannot defile him. Man may enjoy it – with the exception of blood and what is strangled (Acts 15:20 ; 29). Man without God uses it in the wrong way. He does not think of God and therefore does not thank Him for that food (cf. 1Tim 4:3). When he eats, he thinks only of his own needs. This selfishness and covetousness is what comes out of man and that defiles him.

The Lord concludes His speech with a call to each of His listeners personally to take His words to heart.

After He has taught the crowd, He comes into the house. The house represents the familiar atmosphere of His dealings with His disciples. There He teaches them further. The disciples ask Him what they have seen as a parable. Because He has spoken in clear words, without using pictures, He reproaches them because of their lack of understanding. Surely they should understand that man cannot be defiled if he eats what God has given. It comes to him from outside.

”Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food” (1Cor 6:13). This is how God instituted it in the creation of man. He has also regulated the digestion in the body, whereby all excess can leave the body in the toilet. With this statement the Lord Jesus declares in a general sense that all food is clean. His concern is to make it clear that evil is not in food, but in man.

This is a harsh word, both for man who thinks he is doing everything with good intentions and for the hypocrite who can think of nothing but outer cleanness. The cause is in the deceitful heart of man. He does not know his own heart, but the Lord knows it completely (Jer 17:9-10). Here speaks the One Who knows the heart.

He knows that all evil begins with “evil thoughts”. This makes man fully responsible for all subsequent acts, of which the Lord first mentions “fornication”. All these evil deeds cause enormous damage to others and also to man himself who does them. Above all, they are sins against God Who wants man to serve Him with all his heart. But it turns out that in man’s evil heart there is nothing for Him. The things the Lord mentions contain both mind and deeds, for those evil deeds have their origin in the heart.

He calls all the things He has called “evil things”. There is nothing good in these things, nothing that connects with God, nothing that comes from Him. Because of these evil things, man becomes unclean. This means that a man without God is unclean and that the believer who does one of these evil things becomes unclean because of it. Only confession of it makes man clean, for he may know that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin (1Jn 1:7).