In today's devotional Jesus teaches about inner purity. The Pharisees who had carefully replaced the word of God with their traditions, were questioning Jesus why his disciples defiled themselves by eating with unwashed hands? Jesus clarified by separating defilement from contamination; eating with unwashed hands might contaminate you but definitely not defile you.
Communual hygiene was one of the reason God gave the children of Israel his laws to protect the community, not to claim defile and hinder people from coming to God. Jesus said;
"Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you?" Mark 7:17-18 NLT.
What defiles is what comes from within the heart. Washing hands is about hygiene, "washing the heart" is about purity.
"And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:20-23 NLT.
In other words, if determine what goes into the heart and ultimately what comes out of it, we can determine purity. If the heart, the inside is clean, the outside, the life will also be pure.
Halleluyah!
