Inside Out

"Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, 'Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.  Nothing outside a person can make them unclean by going into them.  Rather, it is what comes out of a person that makes them unclean."  Mark 7:14 - 16

While attending a martial arts class many years ago, we had some random man show up in a full ninja outfit, complete with mask and sword.  The instructor had seen him before so he wasn't too concerned.  At some point, he came back and took the instructor up on an offer to work out with him.  It turns out the man had absolutely no clue about martial arts.  He looked the part on the outside, but inside ... nothing.

Jesus had a challenging time, as this passage in Mark reveals, convincing people that outward appearances of righteousness did not make a person right with God.  He continually drove people to evaluate the internal.  What's in the heart?  Is there a genuine love for God and others or not.  Ultimately, an ugly heart will produce an ugly life.

We live in a world consumed with the external - an outside in mentality if you will.  If I look good, I must be good.  Instead, as one commentator put it - "our character must be of more concern to us than our reputation, our heart of more concern than our religious practices, and our virtues of more concern than others' sins."
     
Grace and Peace,

Tom
Location: Fall Creek Christian Church, 1102 West 700 South, Pendleton, IN 46064, USA

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