And
he said, "What comes out of a
person is what defiles him. For
from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
coveting, wickedness, deceit,
sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
All these evil things come from
within, and they defile a person."
Mark 7: 20-23.
Jesus had not a
very high or flattering opinioin of human nature. But He knows ”what
there is in man.” According to Him, human nature is bad and
prone to evil. The way in which the benefactor Jesus was treated by
people, shows that His opinion of man was correct. (Actually He
suffered of His free will, which His captors, tormentors and murderes
did not realize). Also the history of mankind with its cruel wars and
injustices (our own time is no exception) shows that Jesus was
correct in what He said about man. The above mentioned list given by
Jesus is a truthful description about the contents of the
best-selling products of the present entertainment industry. Those
products -films, TV-series, novels, magazines etc. -are saturated
with things that defile man.
One of the things Jesus
mentionend is deceit. We may treat other people deceitfully, but
self-deception is also very common. By way of example, the humanistic
way of thinking that ”man is basically good, provided that he
gets some nice education” is self deception. The 20th
century, which is said to have been the bloodiest during the history
of mankind, showed us the fruit of ”education” and
humanism. Another idea of the same sort was that of socialism: ”If
but the structures of society are changed in a suitable way, a new
brave man will be brought about.” Yes, ...and the nations of
the future will be brothers together... like the balkans and the
members of former Soviet Union have been latelty. (Isn't today the
”tomorrow” that they were signing about some decades
ago)?
Now they also try to make us belive that you can find everything that you need in your innermost, if only you practise yoga and meditate hard enough. They say you will find peace, balance, happiness and bliss, maybe even some deity, if you scratch your navel at the right spot. The stories of those who have tried yoga, dedicated themselves to it and then given it up reveal the truth about it all; everything that glitters is not gold. You can't make something out of nothing.
The human heart is sick. If one is honest with regard to oneself,
one notices that one is guilty of nearly every sin Jesus mentioned in
His list, especially if one pays attention to the standards He set,
like: ”Everyone
who hates his brother is a murderer.”
But
was it so that Jesus came just to blame people and show that they
were guilty?
No. He actually came to set us free and to heal us. ”You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Man needs a heart transplant to replace his faulty heart. It's that sick, but God can and will do that transaction. He makes them continually and loves the job. He replaces one's bad heart with a new one just like His own. Yes it is the fact that Jesus came to save sinners -that whoever believes in Him, shall be granted forgiveness of sins and a new, pure heart- in His name and in the wonder of His blood. And those who experience that and also receive His Holy Spirit, will as well experince that ”rivers of living water will flow from his innermost.” What a change!
You, too, leave the roads of seldeceite and experience that Jesus is the way.
Word