God
is true.
Since everything
He does and gives is holy,
they are always clean – like a fountain of water which springs up (1 Pet 1:15-16).
What is defiled
and what is clean in the church?
People are drifting away from God
by profane customs and passed down traditions (1 Pet 1:18-19).
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain’ (Mk 7:6-7).
You cannot say one is right or wrong
when eastern and western customs are different.
You cannot decide right or wrong by what you see with your eyes,
just as snow falls in the north while the sun shines in the south.
However,
a tree blossoms and later produces leaves,
and after the leaves fall, only the fruit remains.
Similarly, what you see with your eyes change, but a tree does not change.
God does not show partiality (Acts 10:44-48).
○ However, what comes from people’s hearts defile them.
These are evil thoughts, murder, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, and blasphemies.
○ Eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.
What comes from uncleanable hearts defile them.
If it is not by the Holy Spirit, the heart is defiled.
○ A heart that lives by the Holy Spirit has love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Be full of the fruits, power and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
※ If we are not changed by the Holy Spirit, our hearts are defiled.
If we are changed by the Holy Spirit, our hearts are clean.
We should pray more for fullness of the Holy Spirit.