Mark 7:14-23   (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Mark 7:14-23.  With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.  Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?  After you’ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

Mark 7:14-23 (NIV)
14  Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
15  Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’
17  After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.
18  “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’?
19  For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
20  He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’
21  For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
22  greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
23  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'”

On verses 14-23:  The Pharisees and teachers of the law focused so much on physical cleanliness, washing their hands, cups and dishes, all under the belief that those who washed were clean before God whereas those who didn’t were unclean.  Jesus clarifies that it is not what enters a person from the outside that makes him spiritually unclean; rather it is what comes out of that person’s heart – the sin that is already there – which makes him unclean.

We tend to focus so much on the condition of our appearance, when what really needs our attention and work is the condition of our heart.  God knew that too.  That is why He sent Jesus Christ for us, not to deal so much with our outside appearance, but more importantly to deal with our broken and dirty heart condition.   Jesus Christ died so that all the sins we have committed, including those he lists in verses 21-22, could be forgiven.  Only through Jesus can we truly be clean before a holy God.

Father, I recognize today that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves perfectly clean before God.  Only the blood of Your Son Jesus washes us clean of sin and makes us acceptable before You again.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

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