”And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
Matthew 15:10-11 ESV
It’s not what goes in (food) but what comes out of the heart (sin). Jesus was answering for a comment made about eating with unwashed hands. In context he’s talking about the physical elements we may digest don’t matter but the sin nestled within our hearts does. Let’s take the explanation from Jesus…
”But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.“
Matthew 15:15-20 ESV
I believe it was Billy Graham who compared “thoughts” to the birds of the air. He shared how the birds may fly over you but you don’t need to let them nest in your hair.
The truth is, not every thought that comes to our mind is ours to hold. In fact, when you think about it, most of the things you’ve learned came from someone else…
So, today, and always, many thoughts have come to your mind, and their destination is your heart. Once they are in your heart they will have some effect on the words and deeds that flow out from you. How important it is for me to consider what takes up residence within my own heart. How many things have already took up residence, which don’t belong?
”The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV
How many thoughts are going to knock on the door of your heart today, or even try to sneak through the window? What can we do?
”For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,“ 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ESV
If that thought doesn’t line up with God’s will, to hell with it. Let it burn and no longer be a stronghold within your mind. And you may do this in the Spirit through prayer and relationship with your redeemer Jesus Christ. I can’t do it for you, your Pastor can’t do this for you, nor your Spouse. I’ll take it one step further and say you can’t do it for you – at least alone you can’t. We cannot be our own savior. Only God our Savior can do this as we relinquish our own way, put off the old self and put on Christ. Therefore walk with God in every way, including your thought life. May we allow our minds and hearts to be filled with his truth, his love, his grace. His Spirit! That He may be the one that flows from our hearts into our lives and the lives around us.
I’d like to leave you with God’s word from Colossians. God bless you.
”If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.“
Colossians 3:1-17 ESV
