And he says to them, Are *ye* also thus unintelligent? Do ye not perceive that all that is outside entering into the man cannot defile him,
The Lord has just told the crowd that defilement does not come from outside a person. Now, indoors and alone with Him, the disciples ask what He meant. He answers with a question of His own. It treats their confusion as something they should have outgrown.
The saying itself was not hard. What blocked them was the religious training they had grown up with.
The disciples do not understand, and they ask Him to explain it. The tradition of the elders had blinded their natural intelligence. The way of reasoning they had picked up from the elders' authority had spoiled their understanding. And indeed, do we not find many who believe that what enters a man's mouth defiles him? And yet they are sincere souls. Not only that: they also believe that eating a certain food on one day defiles, and on another day it does not. And this because of the tradition of the elders. This is in substance what the disciples were doing. So the Lord reproves them: "Then are you also without understanding?" Here we see the Lord's judgment against many things that keep many souls in bondage — even sincere souls, like those of the disciples.
Christ's opening words carry a mild rebuke. Others had missed His meaning; His own companions had less excuse.
There seems to be some reproach in this question. The Pharisees had not understood; the crowd did not understand (Isa. 6:9; Mark 4:12); but how was it that the Lord's own company did not understand Him? He said to the people, listen and understand (v. 14), but the apostles also failed to understand. And by His question the Lord implies that it was blameworthy on their part to confess such ignorance.
One writer follows the food to where it goes.
Whatever physical food one eats does not have any spiritual effect. It affects the stomach, and so the physical condition of the person, but not the heart. Here the heart stands for the spiritual inner being of the person. God had made provision for physical purging in the disposal of waste. But there was a far more serious issue involved in spiritual defilement.
This is not just a correction about diet. Writers press the freedom it brings well beyond food rules.
This deliverance is an important doctrine for the Lord's followers to hold today as ever. The Son has made us free, and Scripture urges us: "stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). The rules "do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" follow the precepts and commandments of men. The death of Christ has delivered us from them (Col. 2:20-23).
If the outside cannot defile, blaming your circumstances collapses. One writer makes the point with two figures in the same evil city.
The real source of defilement is not a man's environment but himself. It is true that man is what he is — a fallen creature. If he goes into scenes of evil and temptation, his surroundings will stir up the lusts within him. But even so the source of the evil is from within. An angel can pass through Sodom and not be defiled, but not so Lot. There was no evil heart in the angel to answer to sin; there was in Lot.
The doctrine is bleak on its own. It becomes good news only when it drives a person to look outside himself.
In a word, the doctrine is laid down here in the plainest way: man — that is, man in his present state — is only the source of what is evil. I need another, absolutely perfect One, outside myself, to be my life, and such a One I have in Christ. If I am a Christian at all, Christ is my life. From then on my business is to live on that good which I have found in Christ, and to live according to it. So the happy man is the one who is always thinking of Christ and delighting in Him. The man who tries to find some good in himself falls into the same error as the disciples, before they learned better.
- Inside, not outside. What enters a person reaches the stomach, not the heart; defilement is spiritual, and food is not.
- Tradition blinds. Inherited religious rules had spoiled the disciples' reasoning, so they missed a plain saying. Sincere people still fall the same way.
- The question rebukes. "Then are you also without understanding?" implies their ignorance was blameworthy, not just unfortunate.
- Not the setting, the self. An angel could pass through Sodom unstained; Lot could not. Surroundings stir up what is already there.
- So look outside yourself. Man in his present state produces only evil. The answer is not self-reform but another Life — Christ, received and delighted in.
because it does not enter into his heart but into his belly, and goes out into the draught, purging all meats?
Jesus has told the crowd that defilement never comes from outside a person. Indoors with His disciples He explains why — food passes through the body and never touches the heart — and Mark adds a note that reaches far beyond one meal.
The Lord's argument turns on where food actually goes. The body handles it and gets rid of what it does not need.
Whatever physical food one eats does not have any spiritual effect. It affects the stomach, and so the body's condition, but not the heart. Here the heart stands for the inner, spiritual part of the person. God provided for physical cleansing in the way the body disposes of waste. But spiritual defilement is a far more serious matter.
What matters most about a person lies deeper than digestion.
The soul was separate from man's body, and greater than it. What went into a man fed and maintained his body — the house of the soul and spirit. The things which mattered most were those which proceeded from a man. His schemes, his motives, his desires, his character, his moral colour — these made a man a centre of power, radiating influences either for good or for evil.
Translations differ over the last words of the verse. Some make them part of the sentence about the body — "purging all meats." Others, like the ESV, read them as Mark's own comment: "Thus he declared all foods clean." Read that way, one line takes down a whole religious code.
We learn from this passage how the Lord put an end to the whole taboo of the Sabbath, as, in Mark 7:19, He did to that of meats.
The food laws had never been about the animals themselves.
It is true that the law forbade certain meats to Israelites (Lev. 11), but not because eating them was sinful in itself. It was a picture-lesson to the Jews, teaching them to keep clearly separate from the Gentile nations... Acts 10 shows this clearly. God gave Peter a vision of a container let down from heaven holding every kind of animal, and told him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." When Peter objected, God said, "What God has made clean, do not call common."
This is not just ancient history. Rules about what you may taste or touch keep coming back, and this verse answers them.
This freedom is an important teaching for the Lord's followers to hold today as much as ever. The Son has made us free, and we are urged to "stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). Rules like "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" come from human teaching and human commands, and the death of Christ has set us free from them (Col. 2:20-23).
The disciples still could not take it in. One thing blocks understanding more than anything else.
There is nothing in the heart of man that so hinders his intelligence as the influence of religious tradition. Not only that: tradition darkens a disciple wherever it works, and one effect that always goes with it is a refusal to bow to the humbling truth that there is no good thing in man.
If nothing from outside can defile, a person cannot blame his surroundings. He carries the problem inside him.
The real source of defilement is not a man's environment but himself. It is true that man is a fallen creature. If he walks into scenes of evil and temptation, his surroundings will stir up the desires already inside him. Even so, the evil comes from within. An angel could pass through Sodom without being defiled, but Lot could not. The angel had no evil heart to respond to sin; Lot did.
Since the trouble is internal, washing, diet and ceremony cannot reach it. The cure must be something else entirely.
What stronger proof could we have that it is not reformation men need, but a new creation! What proof, too, that outward practices can never be enough on their own, because they cannot reach what is inside!
And that new life is a Person, not a rule.
I need another One, perfect in every way, outside of me, to be my life — and I have such a One in Christ.
- Route. Food goes to the stomach, not the heart, so it can touch the body but never make a person morally unclean.
- Ruling. So the Lord ended the food rules. Peter learned the same lesson in his vision: what God has made clean, no one may call common.
- Release. Hold that freedom. "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" comes from human commands, not from Christ.
- Root. Rule out outside causes and the true source stands exposed. An angel could pass through Sodom undefiled; Lot could not, because the evil was inside him.
- Remedy. Such a heart does not need reform. It needs a new creation, and a perfect life outside ourselves — Christ.