These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
These are the things which defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile, and neglecting ceremonial washing is not breaking God's law. The washing rules were human requirements not commanded by God, yet they were treated as more sacred than the commandments given at Sinai and drew minds away from the great principles of the law.
Defilement comes from within, out of the heart, and is expressed through the mouth in words and actions and life, for sin defiles the heart. The things that defile are evil thoughts and the acts they produce, namely murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. Food entering the mouth passes through the body and does not cause this moral defilement.
The heart is the root and fountain, and words and deeds are the fruit and the streams flowing from it that make known the nature of the spirit cherished within. Outward appearance cannot reveal the heart, so people cannot reliably distinguish the righteous from the wicked by appearance, but a person's fruits disclose character. Enmity, bitterness, and evil sentiments hidden in the heart defile even when covered by feigning to be just and righteous, for Jesus knows and reads the thoughts and underlying tendencies and all are written in the book, so all presentations feigning righteousness while the heart is unchanged are worthless.
Defilement comes from the thoughts and plans that rise out of dark corners of the soul that still need to be purified; these inward sins are without excuse, and the soul must be cleansed from them. A heart full of enmity must be thoroughly changed and transformed; when grace reigns in the heart it produces heavenly principles, truth in the inward parts, and just principles and acts, and the change appears in words and deeds, but while the root of bitterness is cherished it will bear the fruit of gall and wormwood and the life is a deception and a fraud. Moral purity therefore depends on right thinking and right acting with thoughts centered in Christ, because evil thoughts destroy the soul while pure and true thoughts give peace and happiness and prepare mind and soul to labor harmoniously for the Master. One who partakes of the divine nature and is a son of God will break with the enemy and his life will reveal the fact, though he sees only a few of the faults in the life he is weaving while many more remain unseen.
These are the things which defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile, and neglecting ceremonial washing is not breaking God's law. The washing rules were human requirements not commanded by God, yet they were treated as more sacred than the commandments given at Sinai and drew minds away from the great principles of the law.
Defilement comes from within, out of the heart, and is expressed through the mouth in words and actions and life, for sin defiles the heart. The things that defile are evil thoughts and the acts they produce, namely murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. Food entering the mouth passes through the body and does not cause this moral defilement.
The heart is the root and fountain, and words and deeds are the fruit and the streams flowing from it that make known the nature of the spirit cherished within. Outward appearance cannot reveal the heart, so people cannot reliably distinguish the righteous from the wicked by appearance, but a person's fruits disclose character. Enmity, bitterness, and evil sentiments hidden in the heart defile even when covered by feigning to be just and righteous, for Jesus knows and reads the thoughts and underlying tendencies and all are written in the book, so all presentations feigning righteousness while the heart is unchanged are worthless.
Defilement comes from the thoughts and plans that rise out of dark corners of the soul that still need to be purified; these inward sins are without excuse, and the soul must be cleansed from them. A heart full of enmity must be thoroughly changed and transformed; when grace reigns in the heart it produces heavenly principles, truth in the inward parts, and just principles and acts, and the change appears in words and deeds, but while the root of bitterness is cherished it will bear the fruit of gall and wormwood and the life is a deception and a fraud. Moral purity therefore depends on right thinking and right acting with thoughts centered in Christ, because evil thoughts destroy the soul while pure and true thoughts give peace and happiness and prepare mind and soul to labor harmoniously for the Master. One who partakes of the divine nature and is a son of God will break with the enemy and his life will reveal the fact, though he sees only a few of the faults in the life he is weaving while many more remain unseen.