Mark 7:17-23 Unclean Explained
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 6, 2018, Mark 7:17-23
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples began asking him about the parable. He asked them, “Are you so ignorant? Don’t you know that nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean? Because it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and is expelled as waste.” (By this he declared all foods clean.) He continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes a person unclean, because it’s from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these things come from inside and make a person unclean.”
KJV of verse 19: Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? (Mar 7:19)
(Understanding the Text) The first teaching about what enters the body not making people unclean took place in Jerusalem somewhere where a crowd could gather around Jesus and where the disciples could eat. Could they eat in the outer temple? I have wondered sometimes why Jesus and the disciples taught in the temple so much. I think it was not simply because that was the religious place, but also because it was one of the few places in the city that could handle the crowds who gathered around Jesus. Now they had gone home. Where was home? Was it in a house in Jerusalem itself, or was it a few miles away at Lazarus’ house?
(Revelation of God / Understanding the Text) While I usually like this translation, I disagree with this section in several ways. There is the parenthetical comment that I discussed yesterday, but I also disagree with using the word ignorant. It has a judgmental connotation that does not seem to fit here or with Jesus’ personality. I think that the meaning is more like the KJV “without sense”. The ABP (a direct word-for-word translation) says “And he says to them, Thus also you are senseless? Do you not comprehend that everything from outside entering into a man is not able to make him unclean.” (Mar 7:18). Thus, although one meaning of the original Greek word is ignorant, the context does not indicate that Jesus is calling them names, but rather that Jesus is saying that they should be thinking this through themselves, trying to understand, and not just asking Him the explanation. As a teacher, I view it as a teaching tool to get the students to thinking, not as a complaint about the disciples’ intelligence.
(Application) Here is a list of sinful behavior that our present-day world does not necessarily view as offensive: “sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness“. Jesus says that these behaviors come out of a wicked heart. Jesus is saying that sinful behavior comes from the inward thinking and feeling. He is saying it is a defiled character inside that brings out what we think of as sins. The problem is not the sins, but rather the inward thinking, the heart, that is already defiled. We must have a heart clean-up in order to stop performing these sins. We do not stop performing the sins first and that cleans up the heart. The cause is within. That must be cleaned, not the outside. We need new hearts. We need our hearts cleansed by the Holy Spirit. When they become defiled again, we need them cleansed again.
(Prayer) Give me a cleansed heart that is not tempted by the sinful behavior listed in the verses. Teach me to have sense and understand Your words. Teach me to think like You do.