Dirty Hands, Sensuality, and the Word That Made My Chest Tighten: Sitting With Mark 7
I’m back.
Only two weeks between this one and the last — which honestly feels like progress. One week I was out of town. The next week? Poor time management. We’re growing. We’re learning.
But the motivation is still here.
So here we are.
This is my live-reaction, deconstruction-style Bible study where I open Scripture, read the whole chapter, and let my body, brain, and Spirit respond in real time. I am not a scholar. I am not a theologian. I’m just a girl in her Bible asking questions — especially about sex, love, marriage, and the places where language has shaped how I see myself.
This week: Mark 7.
And we’ve officially crossed into the New Testament.
The Setup: Dirty Hands & Religious Leaders
The chapter starts with Pharisees criticizing Jesus’ disciples for eating without washing their hands “properly.”
Which, at first glance, sounds like basic hygiene.
But it’s deeper than that.
This was about ritual purity. Clean vs. unclean. Kosher laws. Tradition layered upon tradition layered upon tradition.
And Jesus basically says:
You’re worried about what goes into someone’s mouth —
but what comes out of someone’s heart is the real issue.
And then He lists what defiles a person.
The List That Made My Body React
Mark 7:21–23:
“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.”
Two words made my body respond immediately:
Sexual immorality
Sensuality
Not intellectually.
Physically.
A tightening in my chest.
A buzzing in my brow.
That subtle “oh?” feeling.
Because those words have been weaponized before.
“Sexual Immorality” — The Vague Umbrella
The Greek word here is porneia.
It’s a broad term. Historically, it could include:
Adultery
Prostitution
Incest
Sexual exploitation
Participation in pagan sexual rites
Premarital sex
And here’s where I’m still wrestling:
Premarital sex.
That’s the one that always sticks.
Because I’ve said this before — marriage itself doesn’t magically make sex righteous.
If marriage alone made sex holy, then marital rape wouldn’t exist.
So what exactly is the issue?
Is it covenant?
Is it harm?
Is it exploitation?
Is it unfaithfulness?
Or is it something we’ve flattened into rule-following without examining fruit?
I don’t have a neat answer.
I just have the question.
And I’m letting it stay a question.
The Word That Really Got Me: Sensuality
The Greek word translated “sensuality” here is aselgeia.
And this is important.
Because in modern language, sensuality usually means:
Being attuned to your senses
Enjoying touch, taste, smell, sound, sight
Feeling embodied
Experiencing pleasure
Erotic expression
Feeling alive in your body
That’s how I understand sensuality.
And I associate it with something positive.
But biblically?
Aselgeia doesn’t mean sensory awareness.
It means something more like:
Shameless excess
Moral recklessness
Unrestrained indulgence
Flaunting disregard for communal boundaries
That is a very different tone.
It’s not “you enjoyed the way your scalp felt during a head massage.”
It’s “you are indulging desire in a way that disregards love, covenant, and responsibility.”
That’s different.
Very different.
The Messaging I Internalized
I have heard sermons where “sensuality” was treated as:
Being too aware of your body
Enjoying pleasure
Dressing confidently
Dancing freely
Feeling alive in your skin
As if the body itself were suspect.
As if sensation were dangerous.
As if pleasure were inherently sinful.
And that messaging did something to me.
It created this subtle belief that:
My body can’t be trusted.
My senses are dangerous.
Pleasure pulls me away from God.
But reading this in context?
That doesn’t seem to be what Jesus is saying.
He’s not condemning having a body.
He’s confronting disordered desire that overrides love and harms others.
There’s a difference between:
Embodiment
and reckless self-centered indulgence
And those are not the same thing.
Pleasure Isn’t Automatically Sexual
This matters to me.
Because pleasure isn’t just orgasm.
Pleasure is:
A head massage while getting your hair done
The smell of someone’s cologne that makes your nervous system soften
Good food you savor slowly
A song that makes you cry
Dancing in your kitchen
The feeling of someone gently tracing your arm
None of that is automatically sexual.
And even when something is erotic — erotic doesn’t always mean sinful.
Erotic means alive.
There’s nuance here.
And language matters.
The Bigger Point Jesus Is Making
The Pharisees were focused on external compliance.
Jesus shifts it to internal formation.
It’s not:
“What rules did you technically follow?”
It’s:
“What’s flowing out of your heart?”
Is it love?
Or harm?
Is it covenant?
Or exploitation?
Is it presence?
Or reckless self-indulgence that disregards others?
That framework makes more sense to me than “don’t feel things.”
Too Much of a Good Thing
I kept coming back to this thought:
Too much of a good thing can become destructive.
Food is good.
Gluttony isn’t.
Confidence is good.
Arrogance isn’t.
Desire is good.
Exploitation isn’t.
Pleasure is good.
Selfish harm isn’t.
The issue doesn’t seem to be embodiment.
It seems to be whether desire is integrated with love and responsibility.
That feels different from what I was taught.
And that difference matters.
Where I Landed
This felt validating.
Not in a rebellious way.
In a clarifying way.
The modern understanding of sensuality — being present in your body, attuned to your senses, capable of pleasure — is not the same as the biblical word often translated that way.
And I don’t believe God gave me:
Taste buds
Nerve endings
Ears that love music
Skin that responds to touch
A nervous system that regulates through connection
… just to tell me to shut them down.
That doesn’t make sense to me.
So for now, I’m holding this:
Embodiment is not evil.
Pleasure is not inherently sinful.
Desire must be integrated with love.
And context changes everything.
I don’t know if I’ve untangled this perfectly.
But it feels honest.
And that’s what this space is for.
And as always —
I wish your mind, body, and spirit
a lifetime of pleasure
and balanced intimacy.
Watch my full reaction and processing HERE.