Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 1 Study # 8
May 24, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(310)
1901 ASV
7:15 there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
7:16 [If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear.]
7:17 And when he was entered into the house from the multitude, his disciples asked of him the parable.
7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, [it] cannot defile him;
7:19 because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? [This he said], making all meats clean.
7:20 And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man.
7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
7:22 covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness:
7:23 all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.
- I. Jesus' "Critical Truth".
- A. Established as "critical".
- 1. By the use of "palin".
- 2. By the use of "lego".
- 3. By the summons of "akouo".
- 4. By the insistence upon "suniemi".
- a. The combination of "akouo" with "suniemi" is found only in the prior text of 4:12 in the explanation for why He was teaching in parables ("...that they may hear and not understand...").
- b. The verb "suniemi" is used by Mark in 5 texts altogether.
- 1) First, in 4:12 where the judgment of God is announced upon the nation for its obstinacy with the result that they not be "forgiven".
- 2) Second, in 6:52 where the disciples falter because they are of "hardened hearts" and do not "understand".
- 3) Third, in 7:14, our current text. Jesus insists that they "understand" (Aorist Active Imperative). The only indication as to how that might happen is in 8:25 where the blind man "looks intently" after Jesus lays His hands upon him a second time.
- 4) Fourth, in 8:17 where the disciples, again, are of a "hardened heart" and do not understand the issue of "leaven". This is a critical link to 6:52.
- 5) Fifth, in 8:21 where Jesus pointedly asked The Twelve if they "do not yet understand" after He quizzes them regarding how many loaves were left over in each of the episodes of feeding a massive crowd with extremely small resources.
- B. Declared as "Truth".
- 1. "Nothing is without of the man entering into him which is able to degrade him". This "degrading" is "to reduce to 'common' status" as not "belonging" to anyone in particular. This is most critical when the "Anyone" is God Himself.
- a. The "nothing" is connected to the disciples' failure to wash their hands before eating.
- 1) This indicates that this "nothing" is physical/material. What goes into the mouth is something physical (food; 7:19). This, at root, eliminates the necessity of submission to the dietary code imposed upon Israel in the Law. The proscribed foods of that code were not to prohibit "defilement", but to preserve "health", but The Pharisees had turned what was "provided for the health of man" into something "provided for the actions of man that would recommend him to God". This is the deceit that man was made for the Sabbath; a 180 degree subversion of God's truth.
- a) At the root of this "critical truth" is one's "view of God": is He primarily (or even, "at all") a Seeker of His Own Self-focused Agenda; or is He primarily (or "always") a Seeker of the best and ultimate outcomes for "persons whom He has created"?
- b) The issues of God's imposition of ultimate and absolutely destructive outcomes upon "persons whom He has created" and they are only "issues" whenever there are fixed commitments by those persons to personal gain at the expense of others. God despises "hateful" people only because they intend their own gain at whatever cost there is to others.
- 2) This indication does not mean that there is "nothing" to lies and deceits that come from some outside "tempter", or false doctrines and traditions of the elders that are placed as substitutes for the words of God; but, there is, at least, the suggestion that even external deceptions have to have something within man to call to them and open them to the possibilities suggested by those deceits.
- 3) The condemnation of The Pharisees and some of the scribes by Jesus, in fact, indicates that those men do have some level of ability to "defile" others (Hebrews 12:15 and 1 Corinthians 8:7) by reason of their teachings that come from "outside" the man.
- b. At the very heart of this declaration is the deceit of Pharisaical religion that God is mostly concerned with the physical/material aspects of man's actions, not the inner heart. Even the proscribed physical foods in the dietary code had to "taste good" in order to tempt someone to think of God as an arbitrary limiter of man's pleasures (a key aspect of the values of the "heart") rather than a "Great Shepherd" who was looking out for His sheep.
- 2. "BUT the things out of the man proceeding is/are the things degrading the man".