Mark 7:1 - Meaning and Application

One great purpose of Christ’s coming was to set aside the ceremonial law that God had given and bring it to an end. To prepare for that, he first dealt with the ceremonial law that people had made and added to God’s law. He frees his disciples from that burden here, after the Pharisees took offense because the disciples did not keep it.

These Pharisees and scribes, who argued with him, came from Jerusalem to Galilee, about eighty or a hundred miles, just to stir up trouble for our Savior where they thought he was most respected and influential. If they had come that far to learn from him, their zeal would have been praiseworthy. But to travel so far to oppose him and slow the spread of his gospel was very sinful. It seems the scribes and Pharisees in Jerusalem claimed not only to be above the local teachers, but to have authority over them as well. So they kept up their inspections and sent men to question others, just as they had done with John when he appeared (John 1:19).

Here we can notice several things. First, what the tradition of the elders was. It required all people to wash their hands before eating. That was a clean habit, and there was no harm in it. But they made too much of it, showing an unhealthy concern for the body, which is only earthly. Worse, they treated it as a matter of religion and refused to leave it as a personal choice. People were free to wash or not wash, but the leaders used their authority to command everyone to do it, on pain of exclusion from the community. They kept this up as a tradition of the elders.

The Roman Catholic leaders claim to value the authority and ancient history of the church, its rules, councils, and fathers. Yet often what really drives them is concern for wealth, power, and control. It was much the same with the Pharisees. Mark gives us a picture of their practice, and of all the Jews in this matter (Mark 7:3, 4). They washed their hands often. The Greek word here has been explained in different ways, some taking it to mean repeated washing, others the care they used in washing. They washed thoroughly, even up to the wrists, and some say they lifted their hands while wet so the water would run down to the elbows.

They especially washed before eating bread, meaning before a formal meal. That was their rule. They wanted to be sure they washed before eating the bread over which they pronounced a blessing, “Blessed be he who brings forth bread.” They also made a point of washing when they came in from the markets, or from public places where many kinds of people gathered. They thought they might become ceremonially unclean by contact with Gentiles or with Jews who were unclean. In effect, they were saying, “Keep away. I am holier than you” (Isaiah 65:5).

The rabbis even said that if a person washed well in the morning, the first thing he did, that would cover him for the whole day, as long as he stayed by himself. But if he went among people, then when he came back he must not eat or pray until he washed again. In this way, the elders gained a reputation for holiness among the people, and they kept control over people’s consciences.

They added to this the washing of cups, pots, brass vessels, and even the tables where people ate. Moses had required washings in many cases, but they went beyond that and enforced their own rules just as strongly as God’s commands.

Second, we see the practice of Christ’s disciples. They knew the law and the common custom, but they understood that they were not bound by this rule. They ate bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands (Mark 7:2). The Pharisees called unwashed hands “defiled hands,” and that is how superstition works. It gives a bad name to anything that goes against it.

The disciples likely knew the Pharisees were watching them, yet they did not try to please them by following their traditions. They kept their liberty and ate as they had done before. In this matter, their righteousness, however small it may have seemed, was really greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20).

Third, we see the offense the Pharisees took. They found fault with the disciples (Mark 7:2). They judged them as irreligious, or as people living loosely, or more likely as people who would not submit to church power when it tried to set up its own rites and ceremonies. So they brought the matter to their Master, hoping he would rebuke the disciples and make them conform. People who are proud of their own inventions and rules often appeal to Christ as if he should support them and enforce their demands.

They did not ask, “Why do your disciples not do as we do?” though that is what they meant. They wanted to make themselves the standard. Instead, they asked, “Why do they not walk according to the tradition of the elders?” (Mark 7:5). It would have been easy to answer that, by receiving Christ’s teaching, the disciples had more understanding than all their teachers, even more than the old men of former times (Psalm 119:99-100).

Fourth, we see Christ’s defense of his disciples. He first argues with the Pharisees about the authority behind this ceremony, and they were the right people to speak with, since they were the strongest supporters of it. He did not say this publicly to the crowd, as shown later when he called the people to him (Mark 7:14). He did not want to seem to stir up anger or rebellion against their rulers. He spoke directly to the men involved, since everyone should have what is proper to them.

He rebukes them for hypocrisy, because they claimed to honor God, but had no true desire to do so in their religious acts (Mark 7:6, 7). They honored him with their lips and pretended that their rules were for God’s glory and to set them apart from the Gentiles. In truth, their hearts were far from God, and their actions were ruled by pride and greed. They wanted people to think that they were claiming a holy place among the Lord’s people, but that was far from what was really in their hearts.

They stayed on the outside of all their religious acts. Their hearts were not right with God, so their worship was empty. God was not pleased with such false devotion, and they gained nothing from it.

He also rebuked them for putting religion in the rules and demands of their elders and leaders. “They taught human traditions as doctrine.” Instead of pressing the great truths of religion, they enforced the rules of their church. They judged whether people were true Jews by whether they followed those rules, with no concern for whether they obeyed God’s law. It is true that the Law of Moses required many washings (Hebrews 9:10). These were meant to point to the inward cleansing of the heart from worldly and fleshly desires, which God requires for true fellowship with him. But instead of caring for the substance, they added to the ceremony and became very strict about washing pots and cups. He adds, “Many other similar things you do” (Mark 7:8). Superstition never stops at one thing. If one human rule is admitted, even if it seems harmless, like washing hands, then many more such rules soon follow.

He also rebuked them for setting aside God’s command and ignoring it. They did not urge it in their teaching, and in their discipline they allowed people to break it, as if it no longer mattered (Mark 7:8). The harm of these added rules is that those who are zealous for them often have little zeal for the essential duties of religion. They can watch those duties be neglected without concern. In fact, they rejected God’s command (Mark 7:9). They truly set aside and canceled God’s law, and by their traditions they made God’s word powerless (Mark 7:13). God’s commands were not only forgotten like old laws, they were, in effect, treated as if they had been repealed so their traditions could take their place. They were supposed to explain and uphold the law, but under that pretense they broke it and loosened its binding force, destroying the text with the commentary.

Christ gives one clear example. God commanded children to honor their parents, not only through Moses’ law but also through the law of nature. “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must die” (Mark 7:10). From this it is easy to see that children should support their parents if the parents are poor, according to their ability. If children deserve death for cursing their parents, how much worse are those who let them starve? Yet if a man was willing to follow the tradition of the elders in every other way, they could find a way to excuse him from this duty (Mark 7:11). If his parents were in need and he had the means to help them, but did not want to, he could swear by Corban, that is, by the temple money or the gift on the altar, that his parents would not benefit from him. Then, if they asked him for help, he only had to say that, and that was enough, as if this wicked vow had freed him from God’s holy law. Some ancient rabbis even taught that vows must be kept whether they involve things commanded by the law or things that are optional, so that if a vow would require breaking a commandment, the vow should still stand and the commandment be broken. This kind of teaching was also used by the Papists, who freed children from duty to their parents through monastic vows and entrance into religious orders, as they called them.

He finishes, “Many such things you do.” Once people let God’s word give way to human tradition, where will they stop? At first, these strict rule-makers only treated God’s commands as less important than their traditions. Later, they made God’s commands void whenever the two stood against each other. In effect, Isaiah had already spoken about them. What he said about the hypocrites of his own day fit the scribes and Pharisees too. When we see the evil of our own time and complain about it, we are not thinking rightly if we say the past was always better (Ecclesiastes 7:10). The worst hypocrites and wrongdoers have always had those before them.

He then taught the people the true principle behind this ceremony. This part needed to be public, because it dealt with daily life and aimed to correct a great mistake their elders had led them into. So he called the people to him (Mark 7:14) and told them to hear and understand. It is not enough for ordinary people to hear, they must understand what they hear. When Christ attacked the Pharisees’ tradition about washing before meals, he struck at the false idea that lay underneath it. Corrupt habits are best corrected by fixing corrupt beliefs.

What he set them right about was the nature of defilement, the uncleanness that puts us in danger before God (Mark 7:15). It is not the food we eat, even if we eat it with unwashed hands. That comes from outside and passes through a person. The real danger is the corruption that breaks out from the heart. The mind and conscience are made dirty, guilt is brought in, and we become offensive in God’s sight by what comes out of us. Our sinful thoughts and desires, our words, and our actions defile us, and only these. So our care must be to wash our heart from evil.

Then, in private, he explained this teaching to his disciples. They asked him about the parable when they were alone with him (Mark 7:17), because it seemed like a parable to them. In answer, he rebuked their dullness. “Are you also without understanding? Are you dull too, as dull as the people who cannot understand, or the Pharisees who will not? Are you that dull?” He did not expect them to understand everything at once. But he did expect them to understand this. Then he explained the truth more fully so they could see it, and once they understood it, they would believe it, for the truth carried its own evidence.

If we understand the spiritual nature of God and his law, and what offends him and makes us unfit for fellowship with him, we will soon see two things.

First, what we eat and drink cannot defile us in a religious sense, so it does not call for ceremonial washing. Food goes into the stomach, passes through the natural processes God has appointed, and whatever is unclean in it is carried away and gone. Food is meant for the body, and the body for food, but God will destroy both in the end.

Second, it is what comes out of the heart, the corrupt heart, that makes us unclean. Under the ceremonial law, almost anything that came out of a person made him unclean (Lev 15:2; Deu 23:13). In the same way, what comes out of a person’s mind and inner life is what defiles him before God and calls for cleansing (Mar 7:21). Christ says that from within, from the heart of men, the place many boast of as their best part, come the things that really defile. Like a polluted spring sends out polluted water, a corrupt heart sends out corrupt thoughts, desires, passions, words, and deeds.

Several sins are named here, as they are in Matthew. One listed there, false witness, is not mentioned here, but seven are added here to those already given. First are covetousnesses, which is plural, meaning strong and growing desires for more of this world’s wealth and pleasures, always saying, "Give, give." So we read of a heart trained in covetous practices (Pe2 2:14). Second is wickedness, meaning malice, hatred, ill will, and a desire to do harm, or even to enjoy harm done. Third is deceit, which is wickedness hidden under a mask so it can be carried out more safely and effectively.

Fourth is lasciviousness, that is, dirty conduct, shameless behavior, and filthy or foolish talk, along with lustful looks and improper flirting. Fifth is the evil eye, the envious and greedy eye that grudges others the good we give them or see in them (Pro 23:6), or feels sorrow when others prosper or are honored. Sixth is pride, lifting ourselves up in our own minds above others and looking down on them with contempt. Seventh is foolishness, meaning lack of sense and care, careless thinking, and rash action that leads to much evil. Some take it especially as boasting, which Paul calls foolishness (Co2 11:1, Co2 11:19), because it stands so closely with pride. I think it mainly means the thoughtless haste in speaking and acting that causes so many sins.

Christ puts evil thinking first, because it is the source of all our sins of action. He puts unthinking last, because it is the source of many sins of neglect. From all this he teaches two things. These sins come from within, from our corrupt nature, our carnal mind, and the evil storehouse in the heart. It is rightly said that the inward part is full of wickedness, since so much evil comes from within. They also defile the person. They make a man unfit for fellowship with God, stain the conscience, and, if not defeated and rooted out, will shut people out of the new Jerusalem, where nothing unclean will enter.