Home > Jesus is God in Mark's Gospel
Jesus provides a list of thirteen vices that "come from within." Jesus directs His audience to the true source of spiritual contamination. The human will must be transformed from within to achieve genuine holiness. No amount of hand washing can change the selfish nature of the heart or make it clean.
Mark 7:20–23 - And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
In the Old Testament, God alone is described as the one who "searches the heart and examines the mind.
Jeremiah 17:10 - “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.”
Jesus’s ability to diagnose the universal human condition (kardia) is a manifestation of His Omniscience.
He shifts the locus of defilement from the hands to the soul, revealing that He is the one who will ultimately judge the secrets of men.