Food Won't Defile


Then Jesus left the people and went into the house. The followers asked Jesus about this story. Jesus said, "You still have trouble understanding? Surely you know that nothing that enters a person from the outside can make him wrong. Food does not go into a person's mind. Food goes into the stomach. Then that food goes out of the body." (When Jesus said this, he meant that there is no food that is wrong for people to eat.)
-- Mark 7:17-19 (ERV)


KEY THOUGHT:

Once again, Jesus wants his closest followers to know that the issues of genuine faith focus on our heart-driven actions and not on the cosmetic ones. Luke and Mark add the powerful commentary about making all food clean -- a truth that took some time to sink in among Jesus'early followers. The declaration is radical, not just because he declared all food clean, but because he wanted us to look at our hearts instead of having a perfunctory religious check off list of good deeds that never demanded anything of our hearts.


TODAY'S PRAYER:

O God, please make my deeds helpful and genuine and my heart pure. I want to love you, and I want to love others, in deeds and truth as well as in words and speech. In Jesus' name. Amen.


Source: What Jesus Did! http://www.heartlight.org