Mark 7:15, 21, 23 “There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him, rather he is defiled by the things which come from within. For from within come evil ideas … All of these evils come from within and defile each person.”
As I look around, I believe that the days are growing darker. Crime, violence, and hatred are on the rise. Hardships and conflicts are increasing. My response to this has been to ask God to deliver me and my family from evil. By “evil” I mean the negative actions of others and the evil of this age. I don’t think it’s wrong to pray for God’s protection, but my prayers of late have drastically changed. As I have meditated on Christ and His words, I realize that the evil I should be most concerned about isn’t outside. If anyone abuses me, imprisons me, or attempts to kill me, I can only become defiled (deeply, spiritually impacted) through my responses. I can respond to evil with evil or I can submit to Christ and share His light. My prayer has become: “Deliver me from my divided heart and my weaknesses. Deliver me from the evil within!”
“There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him, rather he is defiled by things from within.” The departure point for this understanding from Jesus was the washing of hands before eating. But He used the opportunity to speak to a deeper, spiritual truth: you can only be corrupted or defiled by the evil within. As people whose goal in life is to be transformed into His image, evil isn’t isolated to drunkenness, lust, greed, pride, theft and murder. Evil is any choice we make that keeps us from being more like Jesus. It is anything that is not of faith. It is any time we allow an external situation to pull our hearts and minds into a place of sustained fear, doubt, anger or unrest.
Deliver us from evil. When I understand this prayer as a shield against the evil of the world, then I see myself as a good person who just needs to be protected from the filth or violence of the world. None of us are righteous by our own merits: only God is good. As I consider the sufferings of our Lord and His followers and as I meditate on the writings of the leaders of the early Church, I am confronted by a difficult truth. Hardships, devastating injustices, and persecutions can impact me negatively or positively. They can cause a reaction that will lead me away from following His example and corrupt my soul. They can also bring me to my knees to cry for divine strength. Tribulation can expose my spiritual poverty and push me into His presence to ask for spiritual manna. And when I respond to the darkness out of the inheritance of the Light, it is a witness to the world that there is something greater at work within me. When, by His strength, I overcome the evil of my heart and allow His grace, peace, and love to flow – it is proof that He is and that He has overcome!