Some Thoughts on Mark 7:14-23

I’ve been reading through the Bible book of Mark the past few months, and I recently read chapter 7. I believe that the Bible is God’s word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and if we read the Bible while asking the Holy Spirit to show us what he wants us to see, we will learn deep and amazing things that, if applied, will change us in the best of ways. I also think that the Bible can have many layers, starting with the obvious ones on the surface, and then the deeper we go, the more meaning we can discover as we let the Holy Spirit lead. I wanted to share some more hidden meanings I saw in Mark 7:14-23 when I read it.

In these verses, Jesus is saying that what we eat can not defile us; only the actions we do can make us dirty. Now, some of us (like yours truly) have some dietary restrictions given to us by God, and eating those things would defile us because they are actions we choose to do. But that was Jesus’ point. It’s not the food itself that makes us dirty, but rather the choices we make. What we choose to do keeps us on the path God wants us to walk upon…or they turn us away from God onto the path of sin.

And that’s the point I saw. It’s our choices that make us dirty. Which means that the choices other people make can not defile us. No matter what others do to us, they can not truly make us dirty. How could something someone else chooses to do, that we never wanted and never chose, make us dirty? I believe that Jesus was saying it can’t. Only our choices defile us. No one else’s choices can.

So please remember: “It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” (Mark 7:15 New Living Translation, emphasis added.) It’s not what others do to us; we are only defiled by what comes from our own hearts.