Mark 7:14-23 "The Inside Story"
Where should real love and understanding live?
Too many people are quick to judge others based on external appearances.
Personal experience tells us that sometimes bad things happen to good people.
The modern-day Pharisees who seek to judge people on the basis of external appearances will find themselves just as mistaken about the things important in life as the ancient Pharisees found themselves.
The Church ought to be sensitive to the real needs of people.
- The Church should be a place of love and support.
- A place where people can find health and healing, forgiveness and wholeness.
This passage shows us how Jesus evaluates what is good and bad in people.
External Trivialities
External trivialities are what we appear to be based on the application of some standard of performance.
Not everything is as it appears.
- You are not what you eat. Eating with unwashed hands does not make you unclean. The problem is deeper.
- What you see may not be what you get. Things are not always as they appear.
Internal Realities
External trivialities are what we appear to be. Internal realities are what we are in fact.
Is a book its cover or its content?
What we are is what we are on the inside. This is the inside story.
Because of the fall of Adam, we all inherited a sinful inclination. Our natures are sinful.
That sin nature must be replaced by a spiritual nature.
When we get our inside right, the outward behavior will be right as well.
Eternal Certainties
There are several important lessons or implications in this passage. Here we see what God considers important.
We must cultivate the inner person.
We cultivate the inner man by nourishing our spirit, by feeding on the Word of God.
We are only as strong as our personal, devotional life.
The good news of the grace of Jesus Christ is that we can be changed. The key to change is coming to Him. Rom. 12:1-2.
- Put aside everything that is not of Christ. 2 Cor. 10:3-5.
- Replace those things which are not of God with things that are. Phil. 4:6-8.
“Turn you eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth shall grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
