Mark 7:9-19

9 He went on, "Well, good for you. You get rid of God's command so you won't be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions!
10 Moses said, 'Respect your father and mother,' and, 'Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.'
11 But you weasel out of that by saying that it's perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, 'Gift! What I owed you I've given as a gift to God,'
12 thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother.
13 You scratch out God's Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this."
14 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, "Listen now, all of you - take this to heart.
15 It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit - that's the real pollution."
17 When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, "We don't get it. Put it in plain language."
18 Jesus said, "Are you being willfully stupid? Don't you see that what you swallow can't contaminate you?
19 It doesn't enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed." (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.