It isn’t what goes into man’s mouth that defiles him, Jesus said when answering the scribes and Pharisees’ questions about why His disciples didn’t wash their hands when they ate bread, a Jewish tradition by which all were to uphold. In other words, it’s not about what you eat or how you eat it. It’s not what you put into your mouth but what comes out of it that determines who you really are. To take it one step further, Jesus said that whatever comes out of your mouth is what is brewing in your heart. Your heart holds the truth of who you are, and your mouth eventually speaks it loud and clear. It is what defiles a man. The heart with its evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and blasphemies will, at last, sing like a canary. Examine it. Make the necessary changes and then guard it with all your strength.
“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” Matthew 15:18-20
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8
“I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:10
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. Proverbs 21:2
Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind. Psalm 26:2
