Mark 7:12-22

12 In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents.

13 And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand.

15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart. ”

16

17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used.

18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you?

19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)

20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you.

21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,

22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

Footnotes

• [a]. Some manuscripts add verse 16, Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Compare 4:9, 23 .