Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
The Bible, especially in the Old Testament, talks a lot about pure food and impure food, or clean and unclean food. It's not talking about organic food and fast food. It talks a lot about things in life that are pure and impure, clean and unclean. For Israel, for the nation of Israel, there were foods that they could eat—pure—and there were foods that they could not eat—impure. This was teaching them something.
All of the rules you read about in the nation of Israel and the Old Testament, all of the laws, all of the regulations, all the rituals, they were teaching them something. If they were eating impure food, it would actually make they themselves impure. There were a lot of points that God was making, but here is one point He was making: it was impossible to stay pure. It was impossible to follow all of these laws and regulations perfectly. That was the point. The point was, it's impossible for us to keep ourselves pure, which highlighted their need—which highlights our need—for Jesus.
How good do you have to be? Well, you need to be perfect. You need to be without sin. Well, that is impossible. This is exactly why we need Jesus.
Two Types of People
Believers, hopefully like you and me, we understand that we cannot be saved by observing any law. We cannot be saved by being good enough. We cannot be saved by doing these things and not doing these things. There are people, religious people, even religious unbelievers as we might call them, who think that they can be saved by law. They think they can be saved by what they do and what they do not do.
Those two people, they really come out here in this verse. You have those who have pure hearts. I hope that's you. You have those whose hearts are pure, and for them everything is pure. Their hope is in Christ. They have freedom to do this or to do that, to eat this or to eat that, because that's not what's determining their salvation or their goodness before God.
Then there are those who are—what does Paul say?—who are corrupt and unbelieving. For them nothing is pure. They have all of these categories of things that they will do and will not do. They think too highly of themselves. They think too little of God's grace, and they take great pride. Here it is: they take great pride in their obedience.
The Question for Us
Which are you? Do you take pride in your obedience? Do you take pride in the food you won't eat or the music you won't listen to, or the movies you don't watch? There's nothing wrong with having food you don't eat or music you don't listen to, or movies you don't watch. But do you take pride in that? Or do you take pride in Christ and in Christ alone?