Matthew 15:10-20 - Defilement From Within

¹⁰ Then, when He had called the people to Him, Jesus said, "Hear and understand. ¹¹ It is not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles him; but it is what comes out of his mouth--*that* defiles a man."

¹² Then His disciples came and said to Him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were greatly shocked when they heard those words?"

¹³ "Every plant," He replied, "which my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. ¹⁴ Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind; and if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into some pit."

¹⁵ "Explain to us this figurative language," said Peter.

¹⁶ "Are even you," He answered, "still without intellingence? ¹⁷ Do you not understand that whatever enters the mouth passes into the stomach and is afterwards ejected from the body? ¹⁸ But the things that come out of the mouth proceed from the heart, and it is these that defile the man. ¹⁹ For out of the heart proceed wicked thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, impiety of speech. ²⁰ These are the things which defile the man; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile."

¹⁴ Then Jesus called the people to Him again. "Listen to me, all of you," He said, "and understand. ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a man which entering him can make him unclean; but it is the things which come out of a man that make him unclean." ¹⁶ No translation

¹⁷ After He had left the crowd and gone indoors, His disciples began to ask Him about this figure of speech. ¹⁸ "Have *you* also so little understanding?" He replied; "do you not understand that anything whatever that enters a man from outside cannot make him unclean, ¹⁹ because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and passes away ejected from him?" By these words Jesus pronounced all kinds of food clean. ²⁰ "What comes out of a man," He added, "that it is which makes him unclean. ²¹ For from within, out of men's hearts, their evil purposes proceed--fornication, theft, murder, adultery, ²² covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, reviling, pride, reckless folly: ²³ all these wicked things come out from within and make a man unclean."