Fom Within

^{Mark 7: 14-23}

^{What Defiles}

⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” ^[16] 

¹⁷ After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸ “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Aren't we often surprised and even embarrassed by some of the thoughts that come to our minds at the oddest times and in the most unlikely places?  Where do they come from?  Perhaps from the evil demons that "prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls", or from the internet where the simple click of a key can open a world we should not be entering, or from conversations "that would make a sailor blush". Whatever, but they are disturbing and we wish we could flush them out as fast as they appear. And we can, by repeating the name of Jesus over and over until he fills our hearts and our thoughts. A simple solution that works.. Try it.

Bro Rene