The Sins within the Heart
of All Humankind
It is said in Mark 7, "There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him those are the things that defile a man."
Jesus is telling us that there are evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, and an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness in the heart of a man.
We all have murder in our hearts. There is no one who does not murder. Mothers yell at their children, "No. Don't do that. I told you not to do that, damn you. I told you over and over not to do that. I'm going to kill you if you do that again. I said don't do that." That is murder. You might have killed your children in your mind with your thoughtless words.
Our children must be alive because they run away from us so swiftly; but if we had let out all our anger on them, we may have killed them. Sometimes we scare ourselves. "Oh my God! Why did I do that?" We look at the bruises after hitting our children and think that we must have been crazy to do that. We cannot but act that way because we have murder in our hearts.
So, 'I do what I will not to do' means that we do evil because we are evil. It is so easy for Satan to tempt us to sin.
Let's say that a man who has not been redeemed sat in a hut for 10 years, facing a wall and meditating like Sungchol, the late great Korean monk. It is fine while he is sitting with his face to the wall, but someone has to bring him food and take away his excrement.
He has to have contact with someone. It would not be a problem if it was a man, but let's suppose it was a beautiful woman. If he happened to see her by chance, all of the time he spent sitting would have been in vain. He may think, "I should not commit adultery; I have it in my heart, but I have to blot it away. I have to drive it out. No! Get out of my mind!"
But his determination is evaporated the moment he sees her. After the woman leaves, he looks into his heart. 5 years of his ascetic exercises turns into nothing, all for naught.
It is so simple for Satan to take away a person's righteousness. All that Satan has to do is give him/her a little push. When a person struggles not to sin without being redeemed, he/she keeps falling into sin instead. That person may pay the tithe faithfully every Sunday, fast for 40 days, offer 100 days of dawn prayers...but Satan tempts and deceives him/her with the seemingly good things in life.
"I would like to give you an important position in the company, but you are a Christian and you cannot work on Sundays, can you? It is such a great position. Maybe you could work 3 Sundays and go to church just once a month. Then, you would enjoy such high prestige and have a big fat paycheck. How about it?" At this, probably 100 out of 100 people would be bought.
If that doesn't work, Satan plays another trick on people who are easily trapped in lust for women. Satan puts a woman in front of him and he falls head over heels in love, forgetting God in an instant. That is how the righteousness of man is stripped.
If we try to live by the Law, all we have in the end are the wounds of sin, pain and spiritual poverty; we lose all righteousness. "Went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead."
This means that though we may try to stay in Jerusalem by living by the will of Holy God, we will stumble time after time because of our weaknesses and will eventually be ruined.
You may still pray in repentance before God. "Lord, I have sinned. Please forgive me; I shall never do it again. I promise you that this will really be the last time. I beg and implore you to forgive me just this once."
But it never lasts. People cannot live in this world without sinning. They may be able to avoid it a couple of times, but it would be impossible not to sin again. So, we cannot help but to repeatedly commit sins. "Lord, please forgive me." If this goes on, they will drift away from the church and their religious lives. They drift away from God because of their sins and eventually end up in hell.
To travel to Jericho means to fall into the secular world; getting closer to the world and farther away from Jerusalem. In the beginning, Jerusalem is still closer, but as the cycle of sinning and repenting is repeated, we find ourselves standing in the downtown of Jericho; fallen deeply into the world.
Who did the man meet on his way to Jericho? He met thieves. One who doesn't even know and live by the Law lives a life similar to an abandoned dog. He/she drinks, falls asleep anywhere and urines anywhere. This dog wakes up the next day and drinks again. An abandoned dog would eat its own excretion. That's why such a person is called a dog. He/she knows not to drink, yet does so and repents the next morning, repeating the process over and over again.
It is like the man who met thieves on the way to Jericho. He is left behind, wounded and almost dead. It means that there's only sin in his heart. This is what a human is.
People believe in Jesus while trying to live by the Law in Jerusalem, the religious community, but are left behind with only sin in their hearts. All they have to show for their religious lives are the wounds of sin. Those with sin in their hearts are thrown into hell in the end. They know it, but don't know what to do. Haven't you and I been in a similarly religious city too? Yes. We were there all the same.
The lawyer who misunderstood the law of God would struggle all his life, but end up in hell, wounded. He is one of us, you and me.
Only Jesus can save us. There are so many intelligent people around us and they constantly brag about what they know. They all pretend to live by the Law of God and aren't honest with themselves. They cannot call a spade a spade, but are always bent on grooming their outer appearances to look faithful.
Among them are sinners on the way to Jericho, the ones who are beaten up by thieves and left almost dead. We have to know how fragile we are before God.
We should admit before Him, "Lord,
I will go to hell if You do not save me. Please save me. I will
go wherever You want, whether it hails or storms, if I can only
hear the true gospel. If You leave me alone, I will go to hell.
I beg You to save me."
Those who know that they are heading
for hell and give up trying to pursue their own righteousness, while
hanging on to the Lord, are the ones who can be saved. We can never
be saved by our own efforts.
We must understand that we are like the man who fell among thieves. Source here
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the Law? |
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It is said in Mark 7, "There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him those are the things that defile a man."
Jesus is telling us that there are evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, and an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness in the heart of a man.
We all have murder in our hearts. There is no one who does not murder. Mothers yell at their children, "No. Don't do that. I told you not to do that, damn you. I told you over and over not to do that. I'm going to kill you if you do that again. I said don't do that." That is murder. You might have killed your children in your mind with your thoughtless words.
Our children must be alive because they run away from us so swiftly; but if we had let out all our anger on them, we may have killed them. Sometimes we scare ourselves. "Oh my God! Why did I do that?" We look at the bruises after hitting our children and think that we must have been crazy to do that. We cannot but act that way because we have murder in our hearts.
So, 'I do what I will not to do' means that we do evil because we are evil. It is so easy for Satan to tempt us to sin.
Let's say that a man who has not been redeemed sat in a hut for 10 years, facing a wall and meditating like Sungchol, the late great Korean monk. It is fine while he is sitting with his face to the wall, but someone has to bring him food and take away his excrement.
He has to have contact with someone. It would not be a problem if it was a man, but let's suppose it was a beautiful woman. If he happened to see her by chance, all of the time he spent sitting would have been in vain. He may think, "I should not commit adultery; I have it in my heart, but I have to blot it away. I have to drive it out. No! Get out of my mind!"
But his determination is evaporated the moment he sees her. After the woman leaves, he looks into his heart. 5 years of his ascetic exercises turns into nothing, all for naught.
It is so simple for Satan to take away a person's righteousness. All that Satan has to do is give him/her a little push. When a person struggles not to sin without being redeemed, he/she keeps falling into sin instead. That person may pay the tithe faithfully every Sunday, fast for 40 days, offer 100 days of dawn prayers...but Satan tempts and deceives him/her with the seemingly good things in life.
"I would like to give you an important position in the company, but you are a Christian and you cannot work on Sundays, can you? It is such a great position. Maybe you could work 3 Sundays and go to church just once a month. Then, you would enjoy such high prestige and have a big fat paycheck. How about it?" At this, probably 100 out of 100 people would be bought.
If that doesn't work, Satan plays another trick on people who are easily trapped in lust for women. Satan puts a woman in front of him and he falls head over heels in love, forgetting God in an instant. That is how the righteousness of man is stripped.
If we try to live by the Law, all we have in the end are the wounds of sin, pain and spiritual poverty; we lose all righteousness. "Went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead."
This means that though we may try to stay in Jerusalem by living by the will of Holy God, we will stumble time after time because of our weaknesses and will eventually be ruined.
You may still pray in repentance before God. "Lord, I have sinned. Please forgive me; I shall never do it again. I promise you that this will really be the last time. I beg and implore you to forgive me just this once."
But it never lasts. People cannot live in this world without sinning. They may be able to avoid it a couple of times, but it would be impossible not to sin again. So, we cannot help but to repeatedly commit sins. "Lord, please forgive me." If this goes on, they will drift away from the church and their religious lives. They drift away from God because of their sins and eventually end up in hell.
To travel to Jericho means to fall into the secular world; getting closer to the world and farther away from Jerusalem. In the beginning, Jerusalem is still closer, but as the cycle of sinning and repenting is repeated, we find ourselves standing in the downtown of Jericho; fallen deeply into the world.
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their own righteousness |
Who did the man meet on his way to Jericho? He met thieves. One who doesn't even know and live by the Law lives a life similar to an abandoned dog. He/she drinks, falls asleep anywhere and urines anywhere. This dog wakes up the next day and drinks again. An abandoned dog would eat its own excretion. That's why such a person is called a dog. He/she knows not to drink, yet does so and repents the next morning, repeating the process over and over again.
It is like the man who met thieves on the way to Jericho. He is left behind, wounded and almost dead. It means that there's only sin in his heart. This is what a human is.
People believe in Jesus while trying to live by the Law in Jerusalem, the religious community, but are left behind with only sin in their hearts. All they have to show for their religious lives are the wounds of sin. Those with sin in their hearts are thrown into hell in the end. They know it, but don't know what to do. Haven't you and I been in a similarly religious city too? Yes. We were there all the same.
The lawyer who misunderstood the law of God would struggle all his life, but end up in hell, wounded. He is one of us, you and me.
Only Jesus can save us. There are so many intelligent people around us and they constantly brag about what they know. They all pretend to live by the Law of God and aren't honest with themselves. They cannot call a spade a spade, but are always bent on grooming their outer appearances to look faithful.
Among them are sinners on the way to Jericho, the ones who are beaten up by thieves and left almost dead. We have to know how fragile we are before God.
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We must understand that we are like the man who fell among thieves. Source here
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