17  After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.

18  "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him `unclean'?

19  For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

20  He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him `unclean.'

21  For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

22  greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

23  All these evils come from inside and make a man `unclean.'"

=========================================================================

No one can take a rotten apple and make it edible again by washing it.  In the same way, an impure spirit can't be made pure by performing superficial activities.  Not even religious rituals and activities, by themselves, can make a person pure.  Why?  Because purity before God comes from the heart.

The implication of this truth is profound:  Men of integrity, those who choose to follow God, have pure minds.  And pure minds like, like clean hands, don't just happen.  A man who commits himself to purity works to flush out the dirt of impure thoughts through confession and meditation on God's word.  This is a painstaking, lifelong process; there is really no shortcut to purity.  But resolving and acting to become a man of integrity and purity pleases the heart of God.