For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
these are the things which defile man; but the eating with unwashen hands does not defile man.
The Pharisees came asking about hand-washing; the Lord ends the discussion by naming what actually makes a person unclean. One writer notes that the question on the table has quietly shifted:
The Lord's subject in this saying is not the means of cleansing, but the cause of defilement. He is not speaking here about how useless ceremonial washing is, or about using water to remove moral stains; He had already told the Pharisees that. Now He teaches those with no training in the law where defilement really comes from. Cleansing assumes defilement is already there. So how does a person become unclean? Is it because polluting things from outside enter his body? The Lord declared that the inner motives behind a person's words and actions are the cause of his uncleanness.
The list of evils just before this verse is what the heart produces. Notice what the Lord does not add:
That was the public verdict. Israel and their hypocritical, self-righteous leaders could not pass it... But with His disciples He goes further. He does not only condemn outward hypocrisy; He shows what does come out of the human heart, and it was evil of every kind. Does He, who is full of love and goodness, have nothing to say about good coming from it? Not a word. These are what defile a person.
Peter asked the Lord to explain the saying, as if it were a riddle. One writer shows why plain words sounded like a puzzle:
What did he mean by calling it a parable? He did not understand it himself. Here was the chief of the twelve apostles, and he cannot understand our Lord. The Lord tells them that man is wrong through and through — his heart most of all. What comes out of a person makes him evil, not what goes in. And this is a parable! The difficulty of Scripture comes less from hard language than from truth we do not want to hear. Truth goes against what people wish; they cannot see it, because they do not like to receive it.
If defilement starts inside, rules that manage behaviour aim at the wrong target:
Man is now a corrupt creature, and his corruption passes into whatever he takes in. So holding the flesh in check is useless in God's sight, and false at its root... Man is lost. But no one fully believes this about himself until he has found Christ. He may believe he is a sinner, but does he believe he is so bad that no good toward God can be got out of him? ... Man is no longer on trial. The testing is over. God has declared that the flesh is worthless; and yet man keeps re-opening the question, instead of believing God.
Rules that manage what goes into a person did not stop with the Pharisees:
Pharisee religion washed the hands; the movement against alcohol washes the lips. But the same word of the Lord shows that both fall short... The heart, the whole spring of moral action, is corrupt before God. What a man is taints what he does. So while man's method is to cut off this and that, God's method is first of all to make the tree good.
This list is not about criminals. It describes the heart every reader carries:
This is what your heart and mine both hold, dear reader. If the worst of these evils have not broken out, that is thanks to God's mercy in the setting where He has chosen to place us. But the evils are certainly inside us, only waiting for a chance to show themselves in all their ugliness. What stronger proof could we have that men do not need reform, but a new creation!
The chapter does not stop with exposure. Straight after these words the Lord moves outside Israel:
My reader, this is your heart! Have you admitted it, bowed to it, accepted the judgment of God on it? Has it become a comfort beyond words to turn away from yourself to Him — that blessed One, whose heart is full of goodness towards you, and whose word to you is, "I cannot trust you; you may trust Me"?... It is striking that as soon as He had exposed the heart of man, the Lord left the place of boasted privilege for the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, which lay outside the region of earthly blessing.
- Source. The Lord is not asking how to get clean. He names where uncleanness starts: in the inner motives behind our words and acts.
- Verdict. What comes out of the human heart is evil of every kind, and He says not one word about good coming from it.
- Resistance. Plain words sounded like a "parable" to the disciples. Scripture is hard less because of its language than because we dislike its truth.
- Futility. Washing hands, washing lips, holding the flesh in check: outward rules cut off single acts and never reach the spring. God's way is to make the tree good.
- Remedy. This exposure proves that man needs not reform but a new creation. The One who exposes the heart then steps straight outside the place of privilege.