God Almighty who created us, watches the things we do, and he knows we don’t like uncleanness. But how did we know that uncleanness is not good? He put that conscious in us; in the end, what do we do? We clean our dirty clothes; we clean our houses, some of us do it better than others, and it all depends on our state of mind.

We also don’t like eating with dirty hands, due to hygienic reasons; nowadays, as you know, the inventions of folk, knives and chopsticks have taken over our lives; not bad, so long as, they do the job to our satisfaction. In the end, this has been added to our chores of cleaning, plus all the dishes we have to do; so, we have become experts in following human traditions. Another thing before I forget, we like taking a bath or a shower, so we scrub ourselves to get the dirt off our skins, for we like to be refreshed and to smell good, don’t we?  The market system is playing on our minds even more, giving us different options of perfumes, soaps, etc. because we like the good things of life.

We also like being smart most of the time, don’t we? Many of us have a way of working things out, mostly to our advantage; but we also get into a habit of pleasing people, in the way we dress, act, talk, for we don’t like to be seen as weaklings. We also view uncleanness as a weakness, don’t we? Most of us do!

So, the question Jesus may ask, ‘Are you clean?’ 

This is an interesting question connected to all of us; when we examine our sinful nature, sometimes we get disgusted by our actions. For after doing something bad, you feel guilty or bad, and then often wonder why you behaved that way.

When God Almighty created man, he came to a point where he had to teach us how to behave in a good way. And if you want to know the condition of your sinful nature, you have to read the bible, which advises us what to do and not to do.

A human being sins in three different ways – and this means, you sin in your mind (bad thoughts), you sin in your heart (feelings), and in your actions.

So, the biggest problem for a human being is when they get separated from God. The bible says, ‘Sin separates us from God.’ (Isaiah 59:2).

When Jesus spoke, he tackled the issues that affect our hearts; he mentioned how human traditions have taken over our minds. He challenged the Pharisees and asked, ‘Why do you break the commandment of God, for the sake of your tradition?’  He wanted them to see where they were going wrong; (nowadays, the majority of mankind are focusing on false beliefs and human traditions, like Santa, decorations, films, instead of focusing on the message of God) and afterwards, when he spoke to the crowd, he had to raise his voice; ‘Listen and understand. What goes into a person’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean’ but what comes of their mouth.’  In the scripture, he indicates that it is not the food or eating with unclean hands that makes you unclean, but what comes out of your mouth – thus, when we say and do bad things, that makes us unclean before God. Matt. 15:10

Matthew 15:16. He then says, ‘What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart; evil thoughts, false beliefs, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander, hatred, jealousy, racism, tribalism, selfishness, idolatry, witchcraft, medium practices, drunkenness, orgies, impurity, fits of rage, etc. makes a person unclean.’ (Galatians 5:19-21)

Jesus came to save us and to help us understand the things of God. The scripture says, ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to man-kind by which we must be saved. Therefore, we have to celebrate, that through him we have salvation. (Happy Christmas****)