What we see and hear matters

A man is defiled by what come out of him, not by what goes into him. Jesus is concerned about our hearts. He makes this point throughout the Gospels. The Beatitudes are an example where he equates anger to murder and lust to adultery. Whether or not you actually physically commit murder or adultery, is not any more important to God than if you desire these sins in your heart.

Jesus says that what goes into a man does not affect his heart. He is referring to food. We have other ways for things from the outside to enter into us and those things can and do affect our heart, so they can defile us because they can lead to our desiring what is unclean.

Examples of this are what we allow to enter us through our eyes and our ears. We cannot watch movies with unwholesome sexual content, explicit violence or vulgar language and not be defiled. Things that enter through our eyes and ears do affect our mind and soul.

This is not just a modern day problem. One of the early Church fathers, Tertullian, spoke to this same issue as most plays in the ancient Roman Empire were dedicated to their gods and celebrated immoral actions amongst the characters.

“How is it that the things which defile a man in going out of his mouth, are not regarded as doing so when they go in at his eyes and ears—when eyes and ears are the immediate attendants on the spirit—and that can never be pure whose servants-in-waiting are impure? You have the theatre forbidden, then, in the forbidding of immodesty.”

Am I willing to live up to these standards recommended by Tertullian that he recommends in order to live by the standards set by Jesus? Am I willing to avert my eyes and ears from entertainment in this culture in order to protect my heart?

Father, please keep me from temptation and deliver me from evil. I pray for wisdom and desire to avoid that which can defile my heart.

Mark 7:18-23
18 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, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

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