This is the equation in Haggai 2.
The Lord told Haggai to ask the priests two questions (Hag. 2.11-13):
- Can you use ceremonially clean meat to impart clean-ness to other objects?
- Is ceremonial unclean-ness “contagious?”
No. Yes. You can’t walk around your house with a piece of clean meat and pronounce everything you touch “clean.” On the other hand, if you’ve come in contact with uncleanness (like a corpse), the things you touch are also rendered unclean. That’s a nice bit of trivia from OT ceremonial regulation, but what application does it bear for us today?
God wasn’t merely concerned with meat and corpses in Haggai 2. He was (and still is) concerned with His people’s hearts (Hag. 2.14). The problem is common: people whose hearts are not right with God attempt to mask that condition with outward religion. That doesn’t work.
A wrong heart (in Haggai’s day, people were not building the temple that God told them to build) cannot be hidden under external Christianity. People may not see; even your closest friends may be fooled. God is not fooled; neither is He impressed with the pretty show.
The outward impression of religion is actually corrupted and made unclean by underlying sin. All the actions and externals of godliness are rendered worthless when the heart persists in disobeying God.
The remedy is a simple one, thankfully! Repent – turn from disobedience – and obey God. The results of a right walk with God are sweet: “From this day on, I will bless you” (Hag. 2.19).