7:14-23
The kingdom of God therefore concerns itself with matters above the range of eating and drinking. Its domain, as the apostle Paul says, is characterized by righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17). The moral and spiritual traits of the sons of the kingdom abide forever, but foods of whatever nature perish in the using; “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but God shall bring to naught both it and them” (1 Cor. 6:13).
THE FOUNTAIN OF UNCLEANNESS
We have in the verses which follow (vers. 20-23), a second statement of our Lord introduced in the narrative by the words, “And he said,” the preceding statement being prefaced by the slightly different phrase, “And he saith unto them” (ver. 18). The first deals with the truth that man does not contract spiritual defilement by means of his material food and drink. In the second saying the complementary truth is presented that spiritual defilement is contracted by the evil thoughts, words, and deeds which emanate from the heart within: “That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed....”
Therefore, whatever ethical teachers may say, the heart of man is the seat of his uncleanness. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). This was so from the beginning, for before the flood God declared of man that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5; 8:21). In consequence of his overt acts of wickedness men of that epoch became so perniciously corrupt that the direct judgment of God swept the ante-diluvian world away.
Always and everywhere scripture testifies to this inward taint. Man is said to be shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin, and estranged from the womb (Psalm 51:5; 58:5). It is in the heart that man erred from the ways of God (Hebrews 3:10), for the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9, 10), being filled with all unrighteousness (Romans 1:29). “Ye are they,” the Lord said to the Pharisees, “which justify yourselves in the sight of men; but God knoweth your hearts” (Luke 16:15).
Unquestionably therefore, man's heart is regarded by God as the source of evil, and because a man's sinfulness arises primarily from within himself he is held personally responsible to bear his own burden of guilt before the Judge of all the earth.
MOUTH, TONGUE AND LIPS
“Proceeding out of” is a simple but expressive term occurring three times in this short section (vers. 2o-23), and is used in connection with both thoughts and acts. Elsewhere in the New Testament it is frequently used with reference to the spoken utterance, and in a good as well as in an evil sense. Thus, we learn that the scriptures form the spiritual food of man who lives by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4). The Lord's solemn pronouncements of righteous judgments upon human sin are likened to a sharp sword proceeding out of His mouth (Revelation 1:16; 19:15, 21), But the term is also used with sinister associations. as, for instance, when the believer is warned to be careful lest any corrupt communication should proceed out of his mouth (Ephesians 4:29). And in the lurid visions of the Apocalypse John saw the destructive powers of judgment proceeding out of the mouths of the appointed agents in the emblematic forms of fire and smoke and brimstone (Revelation 9:17; 6:5), John further saw unclean spirits proceeding out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, that trinity of evil power which may soon appear (Revelation 16:13).
The tongue therefore is regarded in scripture as a mighty instrument which a man may wield for good or ill among his fellows. Speech is the great means for the publication of the thought which arises in the heart and of the dissemination of its purifying or defiling influences among others. The mouth is the medium whereby man may worship God or blaspheme His holy name. So James says, “Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men who are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be” (Jas. 3:9, 10). Hence, he that ruleth his spirit is mightier than he who taketh a city, and “whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles” (Proverbs 16:32; 21:23). But who can bring a dean thing out of an unclean? The seriousness of this problem James teaches when he says, “The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly member,” and, further, “So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body” (James 3:6, 8). In the sense of this guilty contagiousness, Isaiah confessed that he was a man of unclean lips, and accordingly it was upon his mouth that the coal of cleansing was laid (Isaiah 6:7).
Clearly, it is in agreement with the whole tenor of the word of God, that in the matter of guilty uncleanness, the functions of the mouth in speaking are of greater moral importance than those for eating, for “meat will not commend us to God: neither if we eat [things offered to idols] are we the better: neither, if we eat not are we the worse” (1 Cor. 8: 8), but for “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36).
THE ISSUES OF LIFE
In reply to the questions put to Him in the house, the Lord declared to his disciples (1) what was the root, and (2) what were the fruits of evil in men. The root was the evil thought of the heart, and the fruits were the specific acts of wickednesses some of which He named. In the evil thought therefore the evil deed is contained in embryo. Jesus said to them, “From within out of the heart of men evil thoughts proceed...;” then He enumerated a list of some of the vile deeds which spring from man's inner motives, adding, “all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.”
Evil thoughts.-These are the inward reasonings and debates of man's mind. Within himself he deliberates, he calculates, he plans his schemes of sinful indulgence or willful rebellion. “Things come into his mind, and he devises an evil device” (Ezek. 38:10.; Micah 2:1, 2). Thus, in describing the appalling moral degradation of the human race, the apostle traces it to this inward source: “knowing God they glorified him: not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings [thoughts] and their senseless heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21). Hidden within the heart, it is one of man's strange delusions that his thoughts are thereby concealed from Omniscience, yet it is written, “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain” (1 Cor. 3:20; Psalm 94:11). The incarnate Son possessed and displayed this omniscience; indeed, according to the word of Simeon to Mary, one of the purposes of His mission was that “the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed” (Luke 2:35).
There are several recorded instances wherein our Lord showed an intimate acquaintance with the secret workings and motives of men's minds—that is, their inward thoughts and lusts whereby they are drawn away and subdued (Jas. 1: 13). Jesus perceived those of:
(1) the disciples when He bade them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:7, 8; Mark 8:16, 17);
(2) the scribes when He forgave the sins of the palsied man (Mark 2:6-8; Luke 5:22);
(3) the scribes when He was in the synagogue where was a man with a withered hand (Lu. 6:8);
(4) the disciples when they had been discussing who should be the greatest (Lu. 9:45; Mark 9:33).
W. J. H.
(Continued from page 295)
(To be continued)