That Which Defiles and He Who Cleanses

By Danny Saavedra

“Then the disciples came to him and asked, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?’ He replied, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.’ Peter said, ‘Explain the parable to us.’ ‘Are you still so dull?’ Jesus asked them. ‘Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.’”—Matthew 15:12–20 (NIV)

What does it mean to be clean? In most cases, being clean has to do with the external and physical, except as it pertains to spiritual cleanness.

In today’s passage, Jesus explains to His disciples why no food we put into our physical bodies can make us spiritually unclean. No food we consume has the power to defile our soul because “it doesn’t go into their heart.” Now, when Jesus says “heart,” He isn’t talking about the physical heart, but our spirit.

Essentially, the things we put into our body don’t cause us to become spiritually unclean. Instead, it’s what’s within us that shows our spiritual uncleanness. You see, we’re not sinners because we sin, we sin because we’re sinners. Within our sinful nature exists “murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Sometimes, these external things reveal the sinfulness within us. Other times, they become the object of our sinful desires, but they’re never the cause of our sin.

What am I saying here? Well, it’s the sinful nature in us that produces the desire to consume that which is bad for us (Romans 7:8, 11). It’s the sinful nature in us that causes us to fall into such things as drugs, alcohol, or a porn addiction.

And here’s the thing: The law of God never claimed eating certain animals would make us unclean. Technically, it was saying that certain foods were unclean in the physical sense, so eating certain animals had the potential to make us sick. For example, carnivores are prey animals that help control populations by picking off the old and sick members of a herd. Therefore, they could transmit disease to other animals—even humans.

Basically, these laws were put in place for the Jewish people almost 1,500 years before Jesus uttered these words. For the same reason, there are laws for restaurants prohibiting them from serving undercooked chicken. It was God’s way of setting His people apart and keeping them healthy. It was never about spiritual uncleanness, but the religious elitists made it a spiritual thing and enforced this belief upon the people.

Friends, nothing you eat, drink, put into your body, do, watch, or say can make you spiritually unclean—our sinful nature is what makes us spiritually unclean and produces in us the desire to pursue these things that are not of God. However, while there’s no one thing that can make us unclean on the inside, there’s One who can make us clean: Jesus!

When we repent of our sins, receive Jesus into our hearts, surrender our lives to follow Him, believe in Him, and trust Him as our Savior and Lord, He makes us clean by forgiving our sins and dwelling in us. He replaces our sinful nature with the Holy Spirit; He takes that which our defiled hearts and makes them holy. And from that point on, nothing can ever make us spiritually unclean because He, the Lord, has cleansed us with His blood and Spirit.

Pause: What makes a person unclean? Why was the truth of this concept distorted?

Practice: Examine your life and consider your habits. Do any of them point to a sin struggle happening within? If so, ask the Lord to help you work in that area so you can overcome that struggle.

Pray: Father, thank You for making me clean through Your Son Jesus! I pray that the good work You have begun in me would continue until the day of Christ Jesus; that You would daily work and change me from the inside out so my life would match my faith in You. Amen.