Joel M Bradshaw

 18And [Jesus] said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”–Mark 7

When my wife and I talk to our kids, we instruct them that the things they watch and listen to will have an influence on them. The things you regularly influence yourself will eventually show up in your life.

But that isn’t Jesus’ point here. He was contrasting the hypocrisy of the religious elite. They would never eat a pork chop, for example, but would have evil thoughts. The pork chop didn’t defile them, but the evil coming out of them did.

Eating kosher therefore doesn’t keep you pure if you have impurity coming out of you. What comes out of a person is more important that was goes in. My Christian friend eats kosher and that’s his business. I do not, and verse 19 above is the reason why.

Rather than obsessing over what goes in you, focus instead on what comes out. As always, I have daily work to do in this area.–JMB