Matthew 15:10-20 - Defilement From Within

¹⁰ And He called the people to Him and said, "Listen to this and learn it! ¹¹ It is not what goes into a man's mouth that makes him foul; no, it is what comes out of a man's mouth that makes him foul."

¹² Then His disciples came up to Him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were knocked breathless to hear what you have just said?"

¹³ He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant must be rooted up. ¹⁴ Let them alone. They are blind teachers! And if one blind man guides another, they will both fall into the ditch."

¹⁵ Then Peter said to Him, "Explain the maxim for us."

¹⁶ And He said, "Are you too, even yet, without understanding? ¹⁷ Do you not understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and afterwards into the waste? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they make the man foul. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, immorality, stealing, false witnessing, irreverent speech. ²⁰ These are the things that make a man foul, but eating with unwashed hands does not make a man foul."

¹⁴ Again He called the people to Him and said, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand. ¹⁵ Nothing that goes into a man from the outside can make him foul, but the things that come from the inside of a man are the things that make him foul." ¹⁶ Omitted Text.

¹⁷ Now when He had left the crowd and gone home, His disciples were asking Him the meaning of this story. ¹⁸ And He answered them, "Are you too without understanding yet? Do you not know that nothing from the outside that goes into a man can make him foul, ¹⁹ because it does not reach his heart but only his stomach, and then passes off into the waste?" In thus speaking He made all foods clean. ²⁰ He kept on saying, "The thing that comes from the inside of a man is the thing that makes him foul, ²¹ for from the inside, that is, from the hearts of men, designs for doing evil come, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, ²² adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, abusiveness, haughtiness, thoughtlessness. ²³ All these evils come from the inside of a man and make him foul."