Matthew 15:10-20 - Defilement From Within

¹⁰ Then Jesus called the people to him and said: ¹¹ "Listen, and pay attention. It is not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of it, that defiles the man."

¹² Then his disciples came to him and said, "Do you know that the Pharisees were scandalized when they heard that saying?" He replied.

¹³ "Any plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. ¹⁴ "Let them alone. They are blind men leading the blind; and if one blind man leads another, both of them will fall into a ditch."

¹⁵ Then Peter said to Jesus, "Explain the parable to us."

¹⁶ He answered. "Are even you still without understanding? ¹⁷ "Do you not know how all that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is afterward evacuated; ¹⁸ while what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart??nd that is what defiles a man. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, perjury, slander. ²⁰ These are the things that defile a man; to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."

¹⁴ Then again he called the crowd to him and said: ¹⁵ "Listen to me, all of you, and understand; there is nothing outside a man which by entering in can defile him; but it is what comes from him that defiled him." ¹⁶ OMITTED TEXT.

¹⁷ After he had left the crowd and gone indoors his disciples began asking him about the parable. ¹⁸ "Are even you without understanding?" he said. "Do you not perceive that nothing whatever from without can defile a man by entering him, ¹⁹ because it does not go into his heart, but into his belly, and passes away, ejected from him?" By these words he pronounced all foods clean. ²⁰ "What comes out of a man," he continued, "is what defiles him. ²¹ From within, from the heart of man, proceed evil purposes??22 fornication, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, wantonness, envy, slander, arrogance, reckless folly??23 all these wicked things issue from within and defile a man."