Mark 7:1-8,14,15,21-23

The temptation is always there to make your case for being a good person based on how you live, whether it's by minimizing your sins, taking too much pride in the temptations that are easy to defeat, or comparing yourself to (and judging) others. There is nothing more hypocritical. Truth is, you could do everything right, and still not have all God wants. He wants a clean life, but also a clean heart.

The problem is that our hearts are the source of the evil that separates us from God. Our hearts are why we judge others and get prideful about the things we can do and make up extra rules to balance out the ones we struggle with. Jesus wants us to see that we're hopeless in ourselves, and that we can't give him a clean heart.

Because it's only then, when we've realized we need help, that we turn to him and see what's been there all along: his offer to create a clean heart in each of us, to give us righteousness that comes from simple faith in him.

Disciples of Jesus obey him, not out of duty, obligation, or to earn anything, but because he has given us clean hearts!