BP 158
“Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? . . . What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” ~ Mark 7:18ff.
In the world of psychology, I suppose one could roughly say that Jesus is stating in this passage that what a man or woman externalizes (in the form of behaviors, attitudes, thoughts, and immoral choices) reveals who he or she is inside the heart. But besides the action of externalizing, there is also a concept of internalizing, not in the form of food but in the intangible form of what makes up a person deep inside their being. The Bible talks about internalizing all over its pages.
As I have mentioned in a previous post, in psychology there is a concept that addresses the process by which a child takes in standards, values, norms of behavior, attitudes, and even the presence of other people around him or her. This concept is often referred to as internalization (also see introjection) and it plays a significant role in the development of the self as well as the future moral character of a child.
(I want to make it clear that we do not internalize a sinful nature during our childhood years. This fallen nature we have already internalized from the Garden of Eden at the universal Fall of mankind through the sin of the first parents. Through Adam, we are all born with sin in situ as an archaeologist would say about an artifact found at a dig. Sin as a character and a propensity are already buried in our souls long before we are even born.)
In short, as babies grow into toddlers and toddlers into young children and young children into adolescents and adolescents into adults, they take in the world around them—thus the significance of the phrase, “Bad company ruins good morals.” Maybe we don’t deeply internalize everything we see and hear like data entered into a computer, but we certainly are influenced by what we experience around us to at least to some degree every day and possibly even every moment.
As believers in God, we do not claim that we are born blank slates (even beyond the presence of a sinful nature). God has created each of us fearfully and wonderfully with innate personalities capable of acting on the world just as the world acts on us as well. I suppose we could call it a bi-directional highway, a two-way street. We believe that we arrive in this world as agents capable of internalizing and rejecting the world around us.
The main point here is that as humans we take in things around us, and those things shape who we are and what we believe and value. Again, I am calling this process internalization.
Christians—men and women who believe in and receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior—internalize several “things” that non-believers do not internalize. For instance, see 1 Corinthians 2:12ff where it says, “Now we have received [internalized] not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept [internalize] the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have [internalized] the mind of Christ.”
In this passage alone, we are told that believers in Jesus internalize (receive, take in, are given) 1) the Spirit that is from God, 2) the things that are freely given us by God (spiritual truth?), 3) as well as the mind of Christ.
Romans 8: 5ff explains a bit further the internalizing differences between the non-believer and the believer: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Here we see that Christians internalize some things that non-believers do not internalize. They internalize the act of living according to the Spirit and its consequence, namely, setting their minds on the things of the Spirit. This practice of setting the mind on the Spirit produces life and peace and the ability to please God.
These two passages alone point to an amazing list of internalizations that the Christian man or woman experiences that clearly impact the development of the self: the Spirit of God lives within us, we enjoy the things freely given us by God, we possess the mind of Christ, we live according to (in obedience to) the Spirit and set our minds on the Spirit, we please God, and we have life and peace. Are not these incredible experiences and truths that inhabit our beings at the deepest level?
We can look at one more verse in 2 Corinthians 5 and identify yet an additional lynchpin internalization that Christians take in at their conversion beyond the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ. Verse 21 says, “For our sake he [God the Father] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God.”
Said simply, when we are born again by the power of the Spirit, through Jesus’ sacrificial death for us, He takes away our sin and gives us His righteousness in return. The Bible says in other passages that Jesus’ righteousness is credited to our account. His goodness, holiness, perfection, grace, and even freedom from God’s wrath are all internalized into our ‘soul self’ like a priceless spiritual bank deposit. We are delivered from a debt we cannot pay and transferred into a status of immeasurable soul wealth all because of the Great Exchange Jesus performed in our hearts.
Secular psychology has no idea how miraculous internalization can be. It does not simply entail taking in mortal attitudes, values, morals, and sociological concepts. In Jesus, it also means internalizing into our souls the God of the universe in the person of the Holy Spirit as well as taking in the mind and righteousness of Christ into our hearts and minds.
Non-believing millionaires or even billionaires in terms of the world’s currency are impoverished spiritually. They are terribly disadvantaged and lacking in what is true wealth.
Those of you who are believers in Jesus Christ, never underestimate what you have internalized through the love and power of God.
2 Corinthians 4:3ff says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of [internalizing] the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have [internalized] this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
Never look at the wimpy psychological concept of internalization the same way again. God goes far beyond mere psychological growth, the development of the self, and ‘adulting’ and metamorphosizes us into beings that house within ourselves the Glorious Presence of the eternal God. After internalizing God Himself by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we then externalize His character through the fruits of the Spirit.
What an amazing thing it is to take in by God’s gift the very person of the most loving Being in the universe! Nothing else of greater worth could ever be internalized. What could be more important whether we live or whether we die?
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” ~ Philippians 1:21
“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world . . .” ~ Philippians 2:14,15
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” ~ John 17:20ff.
Life is all about internalizing the One who came for you. Don’t reject the Bread of Life who you can swallow forever into your soul.
For joy inexpressible.
