Seeing Sin For What It Really Is In Us

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mark 7:14-23

Here is part of the second message I gave at the high school retreat I spoke at a couple of weekends ago. I spoke on Mark 7:1-23 and the title of my message was "Seeing Sin For What It Really Is In Us." I don't think I've ever been more affected by a message that I have preached than I was affected by this one as I continue to work out the implications of it today. When I really get this, I will say with the apostle Paul that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15), and mean it.

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So how do we see sin for what it really is? From verses 14 and 15, we should understand that sin doesn’t have to do with anything on the outside of our bodies. Sin is not something external.

Jesus says very clearly, “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him…” He’s talking about food because the Pharisees were making a big deal about the disciples eating food that would be touched by unwashed hands. But when he says nothing, He means nothing. Things outside of us aren’t the source of our sin. Wearing certain kinds of clothes or certain kinds of jewelry isn’t sin in itself. Listening to certain kinds of music isn’t sin in itself. What I mean when I say that is that there is no kind of music that you are sinning if you listen to it and not sinning by not listening to it. There is no clothing or jewelry that you are sinning if you wear it and not sinning by not wearing it. Why? Because if this could be the case, then it would be something outside of you defiling you. But Jesus says that nothing outside of a person even if it goes into him can defile him.

So we know that sin doesn’t have to do with breaking the traditions or convictions of men that go beyond the Bible. Sin doesn’t have to do with something external. So what does sin really have to do with?

If you don’t understand yet, that’s OK. Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand either. At this point in verse 17, Mark tells us that they asked Jesus about the parable. They wanted to know what He meant.

Jesus then tells them why something that a person eats can’t make him unclean: because it goes through his stomach and out of his body. It doesn’t go into his heart. What’s the implication? Sin is what is in our hearts. The sin in you is what other people can never see and will never see. They will see some evidences of it. But they will never see it for what it really is. What this means is that we can only see sin for what it really is in ourselves. So how do we see sin for what it really is? We look inside ourselves. That’s the only place we’re going to truly be able to see it. Sin is completely internal.

And that’s why I said that the idea of judging others in our hearts leads to what Jesus teaches sin is really about. Sin isn’t most fundamentally about what we do. Sin is most fundamentally about what we think and feel.

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So often we have trouble loving others because when we see them we find them hard to love. But here’s the crazy thing about that. Sin is in the heart. We can’t see their hearts. But if we have the eyes to see, we can see most of the ugliness in our own hearts. If we really saw how ugly our hearts were, then I don’t think there is anyone we could look at who wouldn’t be more beautiful and more lovable than what we see in ourselves.

You can get the entire sermon manuscript here.