The Heart of the Problem (Matthew 15:1-20)

By Tom Ascol

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

If you do not understand the problem, you will not seek the right cure. That is true not only medically but also spiritually.

In Matthew 15 Jesus teaches a vital lesson in spiritual diagnosis. What He says is fundamental to living the Christian life. He exposes the superficiality of Pharisaical religion by putting His finger on the source of all our sinful behaviors.

It is not what goes into a person that defiles him. It is what comes out of him — the corrupted streams that flow from a corrupted heart. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone” (vv. 19–20).

As has been well said, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. Not the blood pumping vessel that is the concern of your cardiologist, but the seat of your personality that is the concern of the Gospel.

Jesus teaches us that there is something far more fundamental to our sinfulness than the actual sins we commit. Our sins do not make us sinful. Rather, we commit sins because, at the very center of our lives, we are sinful. Sin has invaded the inner recesses of our personalities.

The Heart of the Problem (Matthew 15:1-20) by Tom Ascol. © Ligonier Ministries June 28, 2008. Used by permission of Ligonier Ministries. All rights reserved.”