Holiness Starts From The Heart

As we continue to study what the Bible tells us about God’s standard of holiness, in the previous episode we saw the Pharisees that followed Jesus around to find faults. What they said this time was that Jesus’ disciples did not follow the ceremonial hand washing before eating.
Jesus replies to this.
Mark 7:18-23
18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) 20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Jesus calls them dull and goes on to explain God’s idea of holiness. It is not what goes into a person that defiles them, but rather what comes out of them. He says that holiness lies inside the heart, this is the holiness that God looks at, not cleanliness of the body. Jesus also declares all food as clean in this conversation. All things that are good for us, we can consume.
Jesus says that what comes out from a person defiles them. It is out of a person’s heart that all sin comes out. Sinful desires originate from the heart and this defiles you.

Holiness starts from the heart. Unholiness also starts from the heart. This means we should first and mainly focus on our heart or our thoughts. If our thoughts change, everything about us starts to change. It is not what we eat that defiles us or makes us holy.

Jesus, who was generally calm and compassionate, raged against hypocritical faith.
Matthew 23:25-28 
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

In this full chapter Jesus rebukes religious faith. Jesus had cursed many cities like Capernaum and Bethesda and if you go there now you will still see that they have not become fruitful even now, 2000 years later. Jesus’ “woe to you” was powerful; we should strive not to receive that!
Jesus says that the Pharisees looked clean and beautiful on the outside, but the inside was full of greed and indulgence. If you only wash the outside of your coffee mug, all the residue from your coffee stays inside and creates dirt and germs.

We see in restaurants that the stainless steel cups used are very clean on the outside but the inside and the brim is dirty from many people using them. This is what hypocritical faith is like.

Jesus tells the Pharisees to first clean the insides. He calls them whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but dead and rotten on the inside. Taj Mahal is a tomb. It draws hundreds of tourists to look at its exteriors. But on the inside, it has rotten bodies.
None of our rituals and traditions matter, if our hearts are unclean. Jesus doesn't look at our outward works, He sees what’s on the inside.
Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

A big mistake that people make is on the outward religious acts, instead of focusing on their hearts. For example, some people wake up at 3am and perform many rituals but none of this reflects in their life or character.
 
The powerful language that Jesus uses shows us how much he hates hypocrisy. We should all focus on our hearts and what’s inside us!