Matthew 15:19

“Out of the heart come evil thoughts.”

Jesus reminded his hearers that the human problem is that center of all affection is corrupted.  He refers to this as the heart being evil.

I suppose the Pharisees assumed this to be the case as well.   However, they determined to keep the evil nature of the heart in check by prescribing rules of behavior that were designed to curb the evil tendencies that each human human heart knows is present.

Jesus explained, that “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”  These evils come out of the heart no matter what is put in! What is already there is the problem. The human heart can not be tweaked in order to produce good. The heart must be replaced by a pure heart, a gift that is packaged in the New Birth mercies. Jesus insisted that you can not make the evil heart good by disciplining or taming it. It is sick and can not be cured, it must be replaced by a good heart.  Evil is endemic in the human heart.

That is why attempts to change the heart by human means are futile. Education, for example, is a good thing but can never implant a renewed heart to replace the evil one.

No matter how hard you scrub your hands before you eat, the evil heart simply sneers. It is absurd to think that is the way to go about changing the heart.  And it will never replace the evil heart with a good one.