God Hates Sinners
Mark 7:20-22: “20 And He said, ‘That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.’”
In Mark 7:21, the Greek word there for “men” is anthropos and it is in the plural, which means this is clearly a reference to the human race. What Jesus is declaring here is that what ultimately proceeds out of the hearts of men – what originates therefrom – is what really defiles them and that is the fundamental problem that plagues humanity as a whole.
What are the things that proceed out of the human heart? The first mentioned in the Greek is hoi dialogismoi hoi kakoi, translated literally as “evil thoughts,” and that term directly governs the Greek verb and therefore serves as the overarching category from which the twelve vices listed in apposition result. The term is perhaps more accurately translated as “evil machinations” or “evil designs” which has a purpose-oriented connotation. Perhaps a more accurate translation of Mark 7:21 would therefore be, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil machinations which result in….”
And the result is a list of twelve vices that divides neatly in half. The first six items appear in the plural in the Greek text which generally indicates specific and repeatable sinful acts while the last six items appear in the singular which generally indicates vices in the abstract, namely, internal attitudes and character flaws.
The list begins with “sexual immoralities” and it is the Greek word porneia which has a fairly wide semantic range. According to BDAG, porneia can mean “unlawful sexual intercourse, prostitution, unchastity, fornication,” “participation in prohibited degrees of marriage,” and “immorality of a transcendent nature.” Porneia also includes adultery. Christ’s recalibration of adultery in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:28) then takes porneia to an entirely different level and makes it expansive enough to include even lustful thoughts.
The following four in the list – thefts (violates the 8th Commandment), murders (violates the 6th Commandment), adulteries (violates the 7th Commandment), and acts of greed (violates the 10th Commandment). The rest of the vices in the list do not seem to contravene any distinct prohibition derived from any specific source, but rather represent flaws in human conduct or character that result from evil thoughts generated from the sinful human heart. The Greek term translated “evil eye” is an idiomatic expression for envy that we also find in Matthew 20:15. The last item in the list is “foolishness” or “folly.” This does not speak of stupidity or of one who is mentally dim, rather this is an expression, according to one commentator, that means an “arrogant rejection of God.” Psalm 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
Jesus ends with this in Mark 7:23, “23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” What proceeds out of the heart – the seat of the thought and of the will and that which represents the true person – are all manner of evil things that ultimately defile a person. Herein is the fundamental problem of the sinfulness of our fallen human nature.
In his book Confessions, Augustine as a man in his 40s looked back at his life and wrote of an incident that occurred when he was a teenager. He wrote this, “Theft is punished by Your law, O Lord, and by the law written in men's hearts, which iniquity itself cannot blot out. For what thief will suffer a thief? Even a rich thief will not allow him who is driven to it by want. Yet had I a desire to commit robbery, and did so, compelled neither by hunger, nor poverty through a distaste for well-doing, and a lustiness of iniquity. For I pilfered that of which I had already sufficient, and much better. Nor did I desire to enjoy what I pilfered, but the theft and sin itself. There was a pear-tree close to our vineyard, heavily laden with fruit, which was tempting neither for its color nor its flavour. To shake and rob this some of us wanton young fellows went, late one night (having, according to our disgraceful habit, prolonged our games in the streets until then), and carried away great loads, not to eat ourselves, but to fling to the very swine, having only eaten some of them; and to do this pleased us all the more because it was not permitted. Behold my heart, O my God; behold my heart, which You had pity upon when in the bottomless pit. Behold, now, let my heart tell You what it was seeking there, that I should be gratuitously wanton, having no inducement to evil, but the evil itself. It was foul, and I loved it. I loved to perish. I loved my own error – not that for which I erred, but the error itself. Base soul, falling from Your firmament to utter destruction – not seeking anything through the shame but the shame itself!”
Now, at first blush we might be tempted to think, “Augustine, brother, calm down. So you stole some pears as a teenager from a neighbor’s tree? Big deal. You’ve done worse Augustine. We read your autobiography. You’ve done much worse. And it’s not like you killed someone or cheated on your wife.” But, what Augustine articulates here is the fundamental problem with our fallen condition. Augustine had done worse in his life, but what differentiated this sin from others was the motivation behind it and that is what is so sinister and that is what strikes at the very heart of our equilibrium. Because we intuitively understand sins motivated by self-interest. Stealing out of need or want. We do not condone it, but we understand it. Murdering someone to satisfy one’s anger or desire for vengeance, to satiate a self-interested hatred or animosity towards another. We do not excuse it, but we understand it. Committing sexual immorality to satisfy self-interested biological and lustful urges. Again, we do not condone such sins, but we at least understand such sins. But, Augustine and his friends stole those pears not out of hunger or desire. They didn’t even want those pears. They didn’t eat them. They did not do this to get back at their neighbor. Presumably, they didn’t even know him. They stole, not out of self-interest, but for the pure thrill of the sin itself – doing that which was forbidden – and that was what made the sin so heinous in the mind of Augustine and it so starkly lays bare the foundational issue with the problem of sin.
At the very core of who we are in our sinful nature lies a well-spring bent towards evil – a heart perpetually generating evil machinations that result in all manner of sin. Yet so many Christians and non-Christians alike do not understand this to be the fundamental problem. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. And please make no mistake about this: God hates sinners. Psalm 5:5-6, “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak falsehood, the Lord will abhor the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” Psalm 11:5, “The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”
R.C. Sproul once wrote this, “'God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.' That’s nonsense. God doesn’t send the sin to Hell. He sends the sinner to Hell, because he abhors the impenitent sinner who becomes the object of his wrath.” What is so tragic about such trite statements like this, “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner,” is that it presents a partial truth no doubt, but it fails to reflect the full-orbed truth of Scripture and it ultimately dilutes the poignancy and the power of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. Sin is not something I commit from time to time as an intrinsically and fundamentally good person. Sin is not outside of who I am. Sin is core to who I am. And Jesus did not die for a good person. He died in the place of a hopelessly rank sinner. That is the gospel.
Please pay particular attention to how the passage ends. Mark 7:20-24, “20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. 24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.” Jesus makes it clear that out of the heart, out of the very core of who we are comes all manner of sin and defilement which ultimately alienates us from a God who is holy – a God who rightfully requires and demands sinless perfection. Jesus declares in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect.” What is so peculiar to me about all of this, is that Jesus lays bare a serious problem and yet nobody was ostensibly in search of the solution. They just get up and leave. Nobody asks a follow up?
If I was there that day observing and listening to all that had happened in Mark 7:1-23, I would almost assuredly have been the guy in the back with my hand up. “Jesus, if sin and defilement and the consequent alienation from God comes from the inside of a person – the heart – and there is no external ritual, no religious ceremony or sacrament, no external morality or good deed that changes that. We can wash our hands raw, we can obey every religious rule, we can do good things, eat the right things, say the right things, be externally and ceremonially pure, but none of that alters the fundamental problem of the heart. Then what can we do?”
Nothing. There is nothing we can DO to be right with God. There is no religious ceremony, no good deed, no external piety. There is nothing we can DO to generate a new heart. It is only by the grace of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that salvation can be found. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone and it is in our salvation that God forgives our sins, He regenerates us and washes us clean. And it is by His immeasurable grace and mercy that He makes all things new and gives to us what Mark 7:1-23 makes abundantly clear we desperately need – a new heart.
Titus 3:3-7, “3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Ezekiel 36:25-27, “25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”