Read Mark 7:14–19. What did Jesus mean by the riddle in Mark 7:15?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Jesus’ words in this passage have been a conundrum for many as

they ponder their relationship to the teachings of Leviticus 11 regarding

clean and unclean foods. Is Jesus doing away with such distinctions?

Are Seventh-day Adventists mistaken in teaching that church members

who eat meat are to eat it only from the clean-animal list?

First, it would be odd for Jesus suddenly to dismiss Mosaic instructions in Mark 7:14–19 when He had just defended Moses against

tradition in Mark 7:6–13. Second, the very tradition that the Pharisees

were promoting does not have a basis in Old Testament teaching; the

food laws, in contrast, do. Third, what Mark 7:19 means when it says

that Jesus cleanses all food is not that the food laws are abolished but

instead that the tradition of touch contamination that the Pharisees had

made was invalid. This, for example, is that false notion that if you

could be contaminated by coming in contact with Gentiles, then you

also could be contaminated through contact with food that they had

touched.

Read Mark 7:20–23. What did Jesus say causes contamination of a

person?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

In Mark 7:19, Jesus notes that food does not go into the heart but

into the stomach and then passes out through the intestinal tract. But in

Mark 7:21–23, He notes that evil comes from inside the heart, from the

center of who a person is. He presents a list of vices that start from evil

thoughts but then end in evil actions.

When the reference to the fifth commandment in Mark 7:10 is

included with the vice list, every commandment of the second table of

the Decalogue is there. Further, Jesus refers to vain worship, in Mark

7:7, the breaking of what is at the heart of the first four commands of

the Decalogue. Thus, Jesus stands as a defender of the Law of God

throughout this passage.

You might have the right theology, but who fully and ultimately

has your heart?