Defilement by G. H. Heald

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jul 28, 1904

Defilement

By G. H. Heald

G. H. HEALD

“Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” Matt. 15:11.

There is nothing without a man that, entering into him, can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are they which defile the man.

Lest some in reading the article may think that the writer is attempting to defend the use of meat, he will state that he has abstained entirely from the use of flesh, fish, or fowl as a food for about ten years, as a result of the study of the Sabbath-school lessons on the book of Daniel. He discards these articles and others because he believes there are better foods. But if the question were asked, If you were out on an island or in some lonely spot where you could not obtain anything else to eat, what would you do? I would answer, I would do as I do now,—eat the best I could find. I would not starve if there were any kind of food to be had.

The observance of dietary rules is a means, not an end. Some people take up the matter of dress, diet, etc., much as the Pharisees performed their multitudinous ceremonies, thinking thereby to live a life worthy of heaven. Such is a religion of works. It can be seen in many of the observances of the Catholic Church. It can be seen in the Jewish church. It can be seen among the heathen.

A man may be a footpad, or an adulterer, and yet have conscientious scruples which prevent his eating meat on Friday. The Jewish leaders, full of hatred, and scheming to have Jesus put to death, “went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.” John 18:28. A Brahman is defiled if even the shadow of a meat-eater falls on him.

In Christian communities this question of ceremonial defilement has quite largely passed away. Even the injunction not to touch the flesh of the swine is now scarcely observed. Many, taking authority from Peter’s vision, recorded in Acts 10:11-16, feel free to eat everything which can be made to minister to the pleasures of taste.

But there are some who go to the other extreme, perhaps, and tend to make a fetish, as it were, of diet, as something which will earn, or help earn, for them a place in the kingdom. That which goes into the mouth can not defile one. As James says, “So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body.” It is the words, representing the thoughts, which constitute the corrupting stream; or as Jude (verses 4 and 8) shows, it is the uncleanness of thought, word, or deed that defiles.

It may be said that these are the result of wrong eating. This may be true, and doubtless it is often true. A man may eat that which will unnerve him, unfit him for usefulness and for a study of spiritual things, and render him gross and animal-like in his nature.

It is possible for us to eat in such a way as to insure perdition, but we can not eat in such a way as to insure salvation. A man can not eat himself into the kingdom of God. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:17.

The first part of the third chapter of Philippians is an instructive story of

Paul’s escape from ceremonialism. After recounting all his acquirements as a Pharisee, ending with the words “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless,” he proceeds, “but what things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ. And do count them but dung, that I might win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.”

The point I would enforce is this: the laws of health are good, and to violate them is to bring disaster on ourselves; but we must not make a fetish of them. We must not trust in them for salvation. We must not judge or condemn our brother because he eats differently from us, and think that we are the better in character because he eats flesh-meat, and we do not.

“But meat [food] commendeth us not to God; for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. But take heed lest this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak.” 1 Cor. 8:8.