As we continue to examine the "Seven Deadly Sins" and envy, in particular, this week, some words of Jesus make it clear that the source of all these sins is the same:  "²⁰And then Jesus added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.  ²¹For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”  (Mark 7:20-23 NLT)

Wow!  We want to blame the devil or a bad childhood, or the environment, or SOMETHING outside of us for our sin, but Jesus will have none of that.  He tells us the source of envy and every other sin is our hearts.  Undoubtedly, the people and events around us do shape our hearts to a greater or lesser degree, but in the end we have the choice to take God's goodness into our hearts, or sin.  We have no other choices.  God or sin.  We don't think it can be that simple, but it is.  Jesus made it clear that the source of sin is the heart.  Let's take envy for example.  We say it's everyone else's "stuff" that we envy, and if everyone else would stop collecting so much stuff then we wouldn't be envious.  That's not true.  People don't only envy stuff. We envy character. We envy circumstances.  The antidote to envy and other sins is a NEW heart.

Jesus told Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, that in order to inherit eternal life, he had to be "born again."  We could say, we need to have a "heart transplant," not physically, of course, any more than Jesus meant we could be born again physically.  We need to have Jesus come in and transform our hearts, by His Holy Spirit.  That happens when we give Jesus control of our lives, when we receive the payment He made on the cross for our sin as the payment for OUR sin.  Then we gain the new heart, the new life that only Jesus can give and we are on the way to living in victory over sin.  It isn't easy.  We still have to give all we have to the process, but the victory, the "heart transplant" we need is a gift of God's grace, offered to all who will trust Jesus as Savior and Lord!

Take some time to review what Jesus tells us comes out of the heart---all the kinds of evil.  Do you think He missed anything significant in his list?  Why is it so hard for us to give our hearts over to Jesus, and let Him make them new?  What do you need to do to live out of that new heart today?

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Jesus!  Thank You for His clear message on the evils of the human heart apart from You.  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we may live the abundant life Jesus promised today and everyday! This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.