By
Allen White
Jesus called the crowd to him and said,
“Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them,
but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
Then the disciples came to him and asked,
“Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly
Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are
blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
“Are
you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the
mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come
out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of
the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false
testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed
hands does not defile them.” Matthew 15:10-20
Dieticians might take exception with
Jesus’ words. They would tell us that what goes into our bodies matters a great
deal. Of course, Jesus and the disciples weren’t taking their camels through
the drive thru window either. Their diet was healthier than ours. Mac and
cheese was probably not considered a vegetable back then.
Jesus’ point is what goes in tastes
great, but what comes out is putrid. Whether it’s the body eliminating waste or
the refuse coming out of our mouths, both have the ability to defile.
Some of the things we eat might cause
indigestion. But, some of the things we say could lead to “murder, adultery,
sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander.”
No wonder the Bible has so much to say
about the connection between evil and our hearts:
“The heart of the righteous weighs its
answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil” (Proverbs
15:28).
“A good man brings good things out of
the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the
evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke
6:45).
Now for the dilemma: We want to be
righteous and good people, but sometimes words come out we wish we could take
back. Is this proof we are not righteous or good? Do we work harder at becoming
more righteous and good? Or, do we just pretend to be more righteous than what
we are by carefully choosing our words?
The simple fact is not one person
reading this post can make himself or herself more righteous. We could make
ourselves more rigid, but not more righteous. Our righteousness comes from
Christ. Period.
The Bible tells us very clearly: “But
when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because
of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through
the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus
3:4-5).
You and I are righteous because of
Christ. Our righteousness is like “filthy rags” (Isaiah
64:6).
Okay, so if our righteousness comes
only from Christ and righteous people don’t speak evil words, why do these
words come out?
1. We might be having an identity crisis.
Like Rafiki said to Simba in The
Lion King, “You don’t even know who you are.” Rather than operating from
God’s thoughts about us, we might be falling back into some other definition. Our
system might be overridden by old wounds and old tapes. You are not who you
used to be. Stop acting like it. Remind yourself of who you are in Christ.
2. We might need to stop the flow.
There are things we shouldn’t say out
loud, especially to other people – ever.
Every thought and every emotion doesn’t have the right to free expression.
Don’t throw up on other people. Throw up on Jesus. Take your complaints,
concerns and criticism to Jesus. Don’t defile your family or your workplace.
Give it to God – He can take it.
3. We need to come to a greater
understanding of Christ’s righteousness in our lives.
All of the Bible scholars out there
will get excited about doing a word study on righteousness. More power to ya. Just
go over to biblegateway.com and type in “righteousness” in the keyword search. You will be
amazed by what God intends to do in your life.
But, knowledge is only one part of
understanding Christ’s righteousness. We can have the theology down pat, but
lack understanding. After all, knowledge says that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom
knows not to put it in a fruit salad. Right?
The pathway to connecting with Christ’s
righteousness is surrender. We must admit “I don’t know better than God.” After
all, God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah
55:9).
Before we speak, before we act on our
emotions, we must surrender our words and our thoughts to God. We know what
we’d like to say, but how do we yield to the righteousness of Christ?
Make this your prayer today: “May these
words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm
19:14).
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