an excerpt from: What Defiles a Man?

An excerpt from: What Defiles a Man?

“Listen to Me [Jesus] all of you and understand: there is nothing outside the man which going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. [If any man has ears to hear, let him hear]… That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” - Mark 7:14b-16, 20b-23

“But I [Jesus] say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” - Matthew 5:28

Defiling comes from within, not without. When an artist creates an artwork, the work is an expression of what lies within the artist. If a musician desired to motivate a listener for action, he would probably employ a tempo that would prod the listener off the emotional couch and prime him ready for action. Certain tempos, chords, and rhythms will act to relax while certain tempos, chords, and rhythms will act to stimulate. The tempo, chord, or rhythm is not what defiles a man, as they have no heart. The author has the heart. What end or action is the author’s heart desiring that we be relaxed or stimulated towards? Are we being relaxed towards fornication or relaxed from burdens and anxieties? The exact same tempo, chord, and rhythm could be used to elicit both. Are we being stimulated towards a God-pleasing love, or are we being stimulated towards adultery? Again, the exact same tempo, chord, and rhythm could be used for both. We must be careful to understand that an artistic expression is just that: an expression that evidences a heart. It is the heart, where evil proceeds from, which renders a man defiled.

There is a time to relax and be calmed, and there is a time to motivate and be zealous. Music can be a helpful catalyst for both, but if we employ the catalyst of music to satisfy the desires of the flesh rather than the Spirit, that is where we sin. The music is not sinning. The man is sinning. Music does not have a heart. Man has a heart. A tempo, chord, or rhythm is just a catalyst employed by an author’s heart to attempt to communicate or encourage a certain desired understanding or response. A catalyst is something that causes another thing to happen, without being affected or consumed itself. So I say that music is employed as a catalyst when an author uses it to express (communicate) what his heart is enjoying (whether that is joy, pity, sorrow, lust, despair, hope, excitement, anger, etc.) to another’s heart. But the music itself is unaffected in the process because it has no heart. So when I tell my children, “That was a bad song. It is not good for you to listen to that.” I’m not talking about the music, the sound, I’m talking about what the music is bringing to image of the author’s heart. The author expressed his defiled heart with music.

THE EXPRESSION EVIDENCES THE HEART

So the question is, what end are we after when we express ourselves through a composition or a painting? The end, which is the beginning, is the issue. Are we after fornication? Fornication begins in our heart. Are we after encouragement? Encouragement begins in our heart. Are we after envy? Envy begins in our heart. What good or evil thing (desire, thought) is the heart expressing as it uses the means of music or painting or dancing or words, etc… to communicate itself? Answer that question, and you will find whether or not the author stands in defilement as his music or poetry makes known his heart. “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts…” (Mark 7:20b-21a). The expression evidences the heart.

Now the listener or viewer has his own heart, a different heart. As the viewer observes and takes in a work of art, it is not the taking in that defiles the listener. I don’t mean to say that anything can or should be taken in without discretion. That is not helpful, nor the point. What I take in may be unhealthy for me and make me sick. “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify” (I Cor. 10:23). There is a difference between hearing and embracing. They are not the same.

But don’t get cocky with this difference! “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (Proverbs 16:18). David resolves to guard his heart from temptation in Psalm 101:3-4, 5b when he says, “I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not fasten its grip on me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil…. No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure.” David resolves to be alert and not let the evil of another man’s heart have any ground in his...

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excerpt from The Affections of the Heart in Art - a wrestling for the full pleasures in art Jason Harms