The David Spoon Experience 12-5-23 part 1

A) We pick up our gospel review at Matthew 15:15. This is the point where Peter asks Jesus to help them understand what He meant when He said that one is not defiled by what they eat. The biggest challenge here is for Christians to understand that there are three components to the law of the Old Testament: the moral law, the civil law, and the ceremonial law. Jesus brought an end to the ceremonial law, but not to the moral law. In fact, He made it much stronger because it's not just the actions that count, but also the thoughts.

B) As Jesus explains what He meant, one can almost sense frustration, or at least a disappointment that His disciples aren't grasping that the Kingdom of God is within. Jesus makes it clear that anything that passes through the stomach comes out of the body. You eat it, your body absorbs what it needs, and discards the rest. Yes, there are better things to eat than others, but this is not what makes a person defiled.

C) Jesus then explains what defiles a person. For the sake of discussion, let's recognize that the word 'defile' means to pollute, desecrate or make something unclean. It's from our hearts that come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, lies and slander. These are what defile people. They don't come from food; they come from within.

D) Jesus doesn't mince words when He tells His disciples - those who are close to Him - that when these evil things come out of their hearts, these are what make their lives unacceptable to God. It has nothing to do with washing hands or ceremonial cleansing. It has to do with the darkness inside of man carried down through his sinful nature. If Adam and Eve conceived their children in sin, then everyone born after Adam and Eve inherits that same sinful nature from their rebellion in the garden.