Jesus said, “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ”
The Christian knows that we have a spiritual enemy. The book of 1Peter notes this, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” But that does not mean that the evil thoughts that so often cross our minds are from him. Jesus made it clear that our evil thoughts and the actions that precipitate out of them are not from the devil. They are from our own heart. From our heart springs the evil that is hatred that ultimately causes murder. From our heart comes the evil that is lust that ultimately causes adultery and sexual immorality. That all springs from us, not from the devil or those around us. The evil that is greed resulting in theft is inherently part of us. That evil that seeks to deceive others through lies and slander is ours, and ours alone. It is this evil that Christ says causes our uncleanness before our maker.
James wrote, “[…] each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.” It is our own evil desire that drags us away from God. It is not the enemy’s lies that is at the root of the problem, but our choice to think on them, to believe them and to act on them. Acts of evil may be initially prompted by the lie that comes from outside us, but they are only part of the noise swirling around us until they are accepted, adopted, nourished and raised by the evil within our hearts. We may not want to believe that part of us is so intensely unredeemable. But it is so and we know it to be so, because God does not lie. That is why Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
What then can do? One might think that there is no hope for those who have such wickedness in their core. But thankfully, God has a solution. The solution is not to blame an outside source, but to obtain a new heart.
Getting a new physical heart is not exactly an easy procedure. It requires that someone else dies, so that you can live. Then, you must die to yourself (in having your defective physical heart removed from your body) before the new heart can be implanted. It is a procedure done at great cost, and not a little pain.
Getting a new spiritual heart is not any easier. Fortunately, the Lord promises us exactly that. To those who return to Him, He said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness.”
God sees hearts as we see faces.
George Herbert
APPLICATION: Worship
In Psalm 51, David worshipped God, crying out, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!” Praise the Lord that He answers such prayer!