Matthew 15:10-20

What Defiles a Person

10 And he called the people to him and said to them, ¹"Hear and understand:

11 ²it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person."

12 Then the disciples came and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were ³offended when they heard this saying?"

13 He answered, ⁴"Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted ⁵will be rooted up.

14 Let them alone; ⁶they are blind guides.^[a] And ⁷if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."

15 But Peter said to him, ⁸"Explain the parable to us."

16 And he said, ⁹"Are you also still without understanding?

17 Do you not see that ¹⁰whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?^[b]

18 But ¹¹what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.

19 For out of the heart come ¹²evil thoughts, ¹³murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, ¹⁴slander.

20 ¹⁵These are what defile a person. But ¹⁶to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone."