James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Mark 7:23
EVIL FROM WITHIN
‘And He said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.… All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.’
It is a notable characteristic of our Lord’s teaching that He fixes our attention not on outward results, but on inward motives.
I. The nature of the evil.—What are the evil thoughts which we must guard against? Out of the terrible list which our Lord gives us in our text we may select three types.
(a) Pride, foolishness. How easy it is, especially in our leisure moments, to dwell with self-complacency on our own excellencies. At the worst the ‘pride and foolishness’ which proceed from the heart may so exalt the miserable idol of self as to expel God from His rightful throne; in any case they destroy the most characteristic virtue of the Christian heart—humility.
(b) Thoughts of bitterness, ill-temper, and jealousy. The gossip of some idle tongue is accepted and believed; suspicion passes into ill-tempered resentment, and resentment turns into dislike verging upon hatred. There is no end to the mischief which arises from bad-tempered thoughts and perverse imaginations. ‘Out of the heart proceed murders.’
(c) Lasciviousness. It is not always easy for a man to keep his mind clean. But you can hardly exaggerate the disaster of a habit of unclean thinking, and a pure heart is worth any effort to those who remember what is promised to its possessor.
II. The remedy for the evil.—What is the remedy for the evil?
(a) It is necessary to recognise the mischief, and to call things by their right names. There is still a great deal of unconscious Pharisaism in the world; not, indeed, the Pharisaism which makes a show of religious profession (that is no longer the fashion), but the Pharisaism which is almost blatantly satisfied with a miserably poor moral standard.
(b) Let us learn the necessity of a disciplined will, and recognise that it is possible, by vigilant determination, to keep the rein on our thoughts and imaginations. After all, we are members of Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells within us.
(c) Let us remember that in the spiritual as well as the material world, nature abhors a vacuum. The best way to keep out what is evil and unwholesome is to occupy the mind with good and wholesome subjects. A man who gives a few minutes every morning to meditation on some feature of the character of our Lord, or some incident in that wonderful life, is not likely to be a victim of bitter, or self-conceited, or gross imaginations.
III. The conclusion of the whole matter.—Happy is that man who by consistent watchfulness against the first beginnings of evil, and willingness to dwell on what is best and healthiest, prepares himself—or lets Christ prepare him—to be a worthy temple of the Holy Ghost. There is no limit to the possibilities of Christian character, and of lasting usefulness for those whose minds are free to hear God’s call.
—Rev. Canon Kempthorne.
Illustration
‘There was an outbreak of typhoid fever in a country village. The inhabitants, in their panic, made every sort of effort to arrest the mischief. They examined their drains, they scrutinised their supplies of food and drink, they deluged their houses and yards with disinfectants. The fever still went on. At last they called in an expert, who commended the efforts that they had made, but asked some questions which were new to them. Where did their water come from? Was it polluted somewhere up stream? Had they traced it to the source! He answered these questions for himself, and found the cause of pollution near the source of the stream which supplied the village. The mischief was removed, and health returned. When our moral health is suffering, let us look to the source of the mischief.’