Matthew 15:11-19 Common English Bible (CEB)

¹¹ “It’s not what goes into the mouth that contaminates a person in God’s sight. It’s what comes out of the mouth that contaminates the person.” … ¹⁶ Jesus said, “Don’t you understand yet? ¹⁷ Don’t you know that everything that goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? ¹⁸ But what goes out of the mouth comes from the heart. And that’s what contaminates a person in God’s sight. ¹⁹ Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and insults.

Have you ever heard folks condemn other folks because of what those others folks eat or drink? Have you ever heard a sermon that condemns everyone who drinks an alcoholic beverage or who smokes or who indulges in and ingests certain drugs? Sure you have. We all have.

Without taking into account that some Catholic Priests drink alcoholic beverages, some Protestant Pastors drink liquor and smoke and that everyone has taken one kind of over-the-counter painkiller or prescription drug at one time or the other, many of us (Church folks and Bible Christians) have taken a sanctimonious position by condemning others of what they consume in their own bodies.

This does not appear to be The WAY of CHRIST.

Whether it is food or drink, we will be hard-pressed to find one scriptural account of Yehowshua or His Apostles condemning anyone for what they consumed in their own bodies.

What we do find is Christ making it clear that God judges the heart (Spiritual nature of a man) and not the eating and drinking habits of an individual.

CHRIST contradicts and opposes the judgment of the Pharisees as to what makes a person unclean. (Matthew 15:1-3)

Christ points out to us that “everything that goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what goes out of the mouth comes from the heart.”  Sin resides in the heart (Character, soul and Spiritual nature) of an individual and not in what they consume or how they consume it.

I know that this revelation just threw a monkey-wrench into a lot of folk’s religions and perception of sin and filthiness. But let us continue to look at what Christ is saying to us out of our scriptural text.

Yehowshua said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and insults.”

Christ indicates that the source of sin and defilement begins within the heart of a person and their obedience or disobedience to God’s Eternal Ten Commandment and Moral LAW.  The moral sins of murders, adultery, sexual sins (Fornication/homosexuality), thefts, false testimonies and insults are all addressed and forbidden in God’s Eternal Commandments and Moral Law.  And a person who will not keep God’s LAW and Commandments is evil by nature and their mouth tends to speak true to their nature and contrary to God and Holiness.

Do you remember the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 18 where Christ indicated that keeping the Ten Commandments was the way to inherit Eternal Life? Christ actually quoted The Ten Commandants to the rich young ruler. The Keeping of the eternal moral Commandments of God were viewed and taught by Christ as an indication of a holy heart and a righteous soul.

There are a lot of misconceptions in Christendom about what is sin and what makes one person holier than the next. And just like the Pharisees in Matthews 15:1-3, religion has manufactured ideas and traditions that are used to label some folks as unclean, disqualified and sinful in the sight of man. However, it is not man’s judgment that we ought to be concerned with, but God’s.

Man judges the temporary, physical, superficial, petty and inconsequential things of life. God judges the eternal, spiritual and moral things of the heart, soul, character and nature.

Don’t Get It Twisted!  Don’t get gluttony and drunkenness confused with moderation and personal appetite.

Don’t Get It Twisted! Just because religion and wicked hypocritical society calls something a sin, doesn’t mean that God calls it sin.

KNOW THE TRUTH.  IT WILL MAKE YOU FREE.

REPENT!

Copyright © Othealor W. Prince 2015
All Rights Reserved

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!