The Inside Outs of Defiling
What defiles a human being comes from inside. Corruption is an internal conflict with the world.
Defile - to corrupt what is pure or to debase what is excellent.
It was not the fall of the world that allowed sin its effect on creation. It was the fall of man. The corruption within man's heart brought about our fallen state and irreversibly defiled the natural human existence. However, according to Jesus, it is not the natural existence that defiles a person. On the contrary, corruption of the spirit truly defiles.
Jesus explained to his disciples, "Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them." (vs 15) The world cannot defile you from the outside. No amount of temptation has the power to corrupt your spirit. It is not pornography that defiles but the lust after it. Alcohol does not corrupt unless it is craved after. Even eating with unclean hands cannot defile.
The world within us reveals that which defiles us.
In his first epistle, John states, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them." (1 John 2:15). In other words, the love of the world keeps the love of God out of us. It corrupts what is pure; defiling what is intended to hold that which is greatest of all, God's love.
We are not impure because we are human. We are defiled because we allow our human nature to control our spirit. This is why salvation is of the heart. We are corrupted from within. But through the saving grace of Jesus Christ, we are made pure from the inside out.