WHAT REALLY MATTERS

Posted by Yong Joo Park on 31 January 2021 in Acts, John, Leviticus, Mark | ∞

Mark 7:14-19

We studied what really defiles them (Mark 7:20-23) and the background event of this teaching (Mark 7:1-13).

The Law teaches not to eat unclean creatures but to eat clean ones (Leviticus 11:1-46). The problem was that the religious leaders focused on the following: To keep this law better, they created more rules to follow (Mark 7:1-13).

People could try to live like the Parasees and the teachers of the law – creating and keeping more rules. Many religious people may belong to this category. But, Jesus loves us and His grace and truth help us free.

Today, let us study WHAT REALLY MATTERS (Mark 7:14-19).

I. Listen to me, everyone, and understand this (Mark 7:14)

Jesus called the crowd to him and said: “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this” (Mark 7:14).

I don’t remember any other occasion that Jesus emphasized saying “Listen …. understand this.”. We may think about why he emphasized this way. When we consider the previous event in Mark 7:1-13, Jesus must want us not to live like them in spiritual blindness and hypocrisy, but to live in wisdom and truth.

II. What really matters (Mark 7:15-19)

See Mark 7:15^a.

^15aNothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.

This is explained in Mark 7:19^a.

^19a For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.’

In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19^b).

Without this declaration of the truth, they would have no way to understand this truth and welcome the Gentiles who used to eat unclean animals. So we are blessed by the declaration of Christ Jesus, the Savior of the world (relevant message).

Jesus, the Son of God who was full of grace and truth (John 1:14), teaches that the food does not defile the heart of the person who eats it, but the evil that comes from the heart defiles the person (Mark 7:20-23).

Only Jesus saves (Acts 4:12, John 14:6). The salvation starts from our repentance in the heart and its subsequent rebirth by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5). Surely our heart won’t be renewed or forgiven by endlessly keeping more rules. No one can be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin (Romans 3:20).