Nurture or Nature?

February 28

Daily Bible Reading: Mark 7:14 – 37

Verse of the Day: Mark 7:20 – “And he said, That which proceedeth out of the man, that defileth the man.”

In our passage today, Jesus is dealing with the question of what defiles a man. What is it? Is it in the age-old philosophical question – is a man evil because of nature or nurture. Are we evil because of the world around us, or because we are born that way? 

The Bible makes it clear (from Genesis to Revelation) that man does bad things, that he is evil because he is born that way. Our nature is what corrupts the nurture that we receive. In Genesis 3 we see where the perfect Adam and Eve become tainted with sin, and because of that, all mankind is born with this sin nature. 

Where does evil begin? Not from what we learn, but from who we are. And, without a savior, we would all be doomed to an eternal separation from the true God of Creation.

Prayer: God of Creation, we are flawed from birth because of sin. We sin because we are sinners. We need Your Son as our Savior.