Mark 7:20-23 20And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles the person. 21For from within, out of the heart of a person, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
The condition of the heart is what matters. The heart is the source of our decisions which then impact our behavior. Jesus gives a list of vices that come from the heart. He deals with the deeper issues that have eternal consequences, where at the Jews were looking only at the outward, physical elements. Similar vice lists can be found in Romans 1:29–32; Galatians 5:19–21; 1 Timothy 1:9–10; and 2 Timothy 3:2–5.
Evil thoughts are thinking and deliberating about bad things that are not pleasing to God. Sin does not begin as a physical issue but as a heart issue. This first listing incorporates all that follows and shows the heart issue that drives them.
Sexual immorality (porneiai) can refer to many forms of sexual acts that are contrary to God’s purposes for human procreation as indicated in Genesis 2 and the creation of Adam and Eve. Theft (klopai) is often driven by selfish reasons and is a form of deceit and trickery. Murder (phonoi) is a form of robbery whereby one person steals the life of another. Adultery (moicheiai) is another form of theft in that a person takes the love and affection meant for another person’s spouse. Greed (pleonechiai) is wanting what another has. Another word for this is coveting. It is closely related to lust. Greed is driven by the false promise that a person will be happier with the object of the lust. Many of these first evil thoughts have to do with wanting what one does not have and trying to gain it in the wrong way.
Wickedness (ponēriai) is a broad term that includes all kinds of evil that is contrary to God’s will. Satan seeks to get people to do bad in disobedience to God’s commands. One example of this is deceit (dolos) which is trickery and cleverness that attempts to fool others in order to get one’s way. Sensuality (aselgeia) is self-abandonment to follow one’s feelings with no restraints, self-discipline, shame, or sense of guilt. Envy is the summary of two Greek words that mean “looking” “evil” (ophthamos ponēros). Envy is looking at the success or possession of others and wanting it for oneself, and then thinking bad thoughts about how to get it. Slander (blasphēmia) is “blasphemy” or saying falsehoods about others in order to cause shame or to soil their name. Pride (hyperēphania) is feeling to high about oneself and putting oneself above others. To raise oneself up usually involves putting other people lower. Thus, pride or arrogance opens the door to many of the other vices in this list. Foolishness (aphrosynē) refers to someone who has lost touch of any fear of God and acts in humanistic ways that lead to moral corruption.
Jesus’ list is not exhaustive of the human problem, because people can be quite creative in how they sin, but he gets to the core issues of the sinful human heart. Many of these vices are examples of selfishness and rejection of God’s laws and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. The human problem has not changed since the days of Noah, as Genesis 6:5 states that “every intention of the thoughts of the human heart was continually evil.”
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