Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

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Matthew XV. 18, 19.
tion of feeling by word or deed), but the presence of corrupt feeling
wliich pollutes, and this idea assuredly (as Matth. v. 28 shews) the
Saviour was far from wishing to exclude. Again, if the heart
appears as the source of evil actions (ver. 19, Ik t% Kapdiag t^epxovrai
diaXoyianol TrovTjpof), we do not then see how man can be made
unclean ; in his inmost soul he is unclean already. It is the pure
only, not the impure, that admits of being defiled. This leads us
to determine with more exactness the meaning of tKnopevEoOai, Ik. tov
arojiarog, come forth out of the mouth (the opposite of the foregoing
elonopeveadai), an expression which seems intended to mark the rela-
tion of the will to evil thoughts. The general fact that evil thoughts
enter into the mind of man, is a consequence of the universal sinfulness
of the race, but that any particular evil thoughts gain power
over him sufficient to manifest themselves in outward act, is the
result of the will, and its voluntary choice. By actual sin, how-
ever, the habit of sinning is strengthened, and thus also the nobler
germ of human nature is defiled. The heart, here, therefore, is
not the source of evil thoughts, but the canal, as it were, through
which they flow, and through which in like manner the Sijirit of
grace pours good thoughts into man.* In no respect is man the
absolutely free and independent creator of his own thoughts and
inchnations (which Pelagianism would make him), but he possesses
the power equally of rejecting what is bad and admitting what is
good iato his soul, or the reverse. It is very obvious, therefore,
what value is to be put upon the oi^inion of those who infer from
these words that the heart produces at will evil thoughts (or
good), and that these do not originate in the kingdom of darkness.
" Doth a fountain send forth from the same opening sweet
water and bitter .?"-j" James iii. 11. (Comp. as to Kapdla and dcaXo-
ytGi-iog at Luke i. 51 ; ii. 35 ; Matth. ix. 4.) In the enumeration of
the several forms of evil propensities which is also given by Mark
more at length, doeXyeia is not to be referred to sexual impurity, as
elsewhere at Eom. xiii. 13 ; 2 Cor. xii. 21 ; Gal. v. 19, al. freq., for
it stands quite apart from nopvelat and jiotx^laL. It is best understood
as denoting an evil disposed wilfulness and its results. The
* Krablie (on Sin and Death, Hamburg, 1836, p. 131, note) thinks that " Kapdia is the
innermost will in so far as it, acting unconditionally, co-operates for the production of
actual sin." But that is what I doubt—whether the human will can act unconditionally
and independently of everything beyond itself. A good action has for its condition the
influence of God, an evil action that of the kingdom of darkness and its prince. How
this does not subvert the true freedom of the will, is shewn in our remarks on Rom.
ix. 1.
f Does the passage mean any more than that true purity depends not on external
rites, but on the state of the heart ? Moral defilement consists in evil thoughts. In the
first place, they mark a polluted character, and secondly tend to aggravate its pollu*
tion.— [K. •