As to things that defile, they come out of man. This is true in all things and all acts of evil. They invariably spring from within, from the corrupt will of man. Thus, for instance, it is plain that if the law executes the capital sentence on a criminal, it is not murder but contrariwise the vindication of God's authority in the earth. It is not a question of evil feeling against the culprit, and there is nothing defiling in it. But if you were so much as to injure a man in deed, word, or thought, there you have what defiles. The moment there is that which is a part of yourself, without God, which comes out of you, and you yield to it, there is the taint of defilement. "Murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within and defile the man." Mark 7:21-2321For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:21‑23).
In a word, we have the doctrine most plainly laid down here that man-that is, man in his present state-is only the source of that which is evil. I require an absolutely perfect One who is outside me to be my life, and such a One I have in Christ. If I am a Christian at all, Christ is my life, and the business for me thenceforth is to live on and according to that good which I have found in Christ. Therefore, the happy man is he who is always thinking of and delighting himself in Christ. The man, on the contrary, who is striving to find some good in himself is under the error of the disciples before they learned to bow to the word of the Lord. His light was too bright, too searching, too severe, too unsparing, for the will of the disciples. They did not accept the truth with simplicity, and therefore they found it a hard saying.