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Cleanliness And Defilement
What Can Defile Us, and What Can Make Us Clean?
Several months ago when I was still writing with "A Merry Heart Doeth Good”, I wrote an article about my beloved Uncle Rene, whom I was close to when I was a child and a teenager. He often made my brother and me laugh. I also considered him to be very bright and talented. He passed away when I was in my early teens, but I will never ever forget a few Bible verses he shared with me when he was still living. I was going through a phase of germaphobia at the time, feeling like I had to wash my hands multiple times a day. I can remember a few times when my hands were red, chapped, and itching from being washed too many times. I was probably going through at least two bars of soap a month. The verses were:
Matthew 15: 18–20 “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart; and they defile the man. 19) For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20) These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”
He even repeated it to me. And he emphasized that it was in the Bible. That was a long time ago. I am 70 now, and I still remember it. Is “Cleanliness Next to Godliness”? In some ways I believe so. But, what good is it if you clean a bottle on the…
