What Comes From the Heart?

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. Mark 7:21-22 NASB
​
In this section of scripture, Jesus is laying out the things that flow from the heart of men. Jesus starts with evil thoughts, then He is going to describe what those evil thoughts produce. Jesus goes from evil thoughts to fornications, thefts, murder, and adulteries. That is a very large jump from evil thoughts! You may be thinking "I have had a lot of evil thoughts in my day but I've never committed murder!" Here is the key to what Jesus is trying to show us: how important our thought life is. Every murder, theft, or adulterous act, all started with just one thought. Paul reiterates this truth when he says: for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 
Fortresses here are described as being speculations, lofty things raised up against the knowledge of God, and thoughts. Speculation, lofty ideas, and simple thoughts are like bricks. They are stacked one upon the other until eventually you have a strong fortress that has been built. The foundation of these fortresses and strongholds in our minds are simply just thoughts and ideas that have been built up. This shows us how powerful each individual thought is. Let me be clear, there is no place in scripture that says to clear your mind or empty your mind. A passive mind is a recipe for demonic influence. Our minds have been given to us by God to constantly be moving under our authority. This is why Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It is our mind that God has given to us to renew. 
Jesus lists 12 things that flow from the heart of man. Eight of them are outward sins that can be seen by all. Four of them are spiritual or hidden sins that are usually hidden behind the curtain. 
Outward Sins - Eight listed:
Fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, sensuality (outrageous behavior, shocking to public decency), slander, and foolishness. 
These sinful actions all have some sort of form to them. We could easily recognize these with our physical eyes. But these all flow from something deeper. 
Spiritual Sins - Four Listed:
Evil thoughts (the beginning stage of all the rest), deceit, envy, and pride 
What do I mean by spiritual sins? These are sins that are hidden away that others may not see. These are the spiritual sins at the root of our hearts that left unchecked, will lead to the eight outward sins that Jesus mentioned previously.
I want you to imagine a trash can full of trash. You have been given the job to empty that trash can piece by piece. Taking away the stuff on top is a dirty job. But as you get lower and lower into the trash can, the trash is dirtier, grimier, and nastier than what was on top. These four sins that Jesus mentions here, are some of the things that are hidden at the bottom of our lives, and are the hardest, dirtiest things to clean out. 
The one sin that Jesus mentions that is at the heart of every other sin is the sin of pride. Pride is the one sin that literally puts us into a posture of being opposed by God (James 4:6). A.W. Tozer says this about pride and the heat of man:
In every Christians heart, there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross, he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved, but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of man's soul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility. 
Pride, envy, covetousness, and deceit in our hearts will be the ruin of our lives, and are the cause for sinful behaviors that we exhibit. We must all humbly look at our lives and see the hidden, secret places of sin and root them out. We must get off the throne of our own hearts. 

Questions to Consider:

1. Do you find that you struggle with your thought life and feel like you have no control over the things that you think about? How can you practice 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 in your life? 

2. When you struggle with pride (which we all do), what does that usually look like? How can we pin-point prideful practices in our lives and destroy them?