The Source

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled The Source, was written by Tim Gustafson. It was 1854, and something was killing thousands of people in London. It must be the bad air, people thought. And indeed, an unseasonable heat baked the sewage-fouled River Thames. The smell grew so bad, it became known as the Great Stink. But the worst problem wasn't the air.

Research by Dr. John Snow would show that contaminated water was the cause of the cholera epidemic. We humans have long been aware of another crisis, one that stinks to high heaven. We live in a broken world, and we're prone to misidentify the source of this problem, treating symptoms instead. Wise social programs and policies do some good, but they're powerless to stop the root cause of society's ills, our sinful hearts. When Jesus said nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them, in Matthew 7, he wasn't referring to physical diseases. Rather, he was diagnosing the spiritual condition of every one of us. It is what comes out of a person that defiles them, he said, listing a litany of evils lurking inside us. Surely I was sinful at birth, David wrote in Psalm 51. His lament is one we can all voice.

We're broken from the beginning. That's why David prayed, create in me a pure heart, O God. Every day, we need that new heart, created by Jesus through his Spirit. Instead of treating the symptoms, we must let Jesus purify the source.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Mark chapter 7 verses 14 through 23. Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. Are you so dull?

He asked. Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn't go into their heart, but into their stomach and then out of the body. In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. He went on, What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

All these evils come from inside and defile a person. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, please guard our hearts and help us to be attentive to your spirit within us as you lead us each and every day. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.