A Matter of the Heart

“For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.” —Matthew 15:19

When the disciples asked Jesus to explain why He was so hard on the Pharisees, He pointed out that the Pharisees were fastidious about washing their hands before eating, so as not to become ceremonially defiled, but were oblivious to the corruption of their hearts. Jesus kept coming back to the issue of the heart. It didn’t matter if they circumcised their bodies and tithed everything they owned, down to their herbs; it didn’t matter if they washed their hands every time they ate and could quote the Law from beginning to end; it didn’t matter if everyone else respected them as devout believers—if their hearts weren’t right, they weren’t right.

Jesus refused to be impressed with the things that men esteem most highly and insisted on exposing the hearts of people as what really mattered.

He looked the most religious men of His day in the face and confronted them with the fact that they were obsessed with putting on a good appearance while their hearts were empty and corrupt.