What Makes People "Unclean"?
1 Some Pharisees and some teachers of the law came from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked,
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"Why don't your disciples obey what the elders teach? Your disciples don't wash their hands before they eat!"
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Jesus replied, "And why don't you obey God's command? You would rather follow your own teachings!
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God said, 'Honor your father and mother.'(Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16) He also said, 'If anyone calls down a curse on his father or mother, he will be put to death.'(Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9)
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But you allow people to say to their parents, 'Any help you might have received from us is a gift set apart for God.'
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So they do not need to honor their parents with their gift. You make the word of God useless in order to follow your own teachings.
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"You pretenders! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. He said,
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" 'These people honor me by what they say. But their hearts are far away from me.
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Their worship doesn't mean anything to me. They teach nothing but human rules.' " (Isaiah 29:13)
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Jesus called the crowd to him. He said, "Listen and understand.
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What goes into your mouth does not make you 'unclean.' It's what comes out of your mouth that makes you 'unclean.' "
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Then the disciples came to him. They asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were angry when they heard this?"
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Jesus replied, "There are plants that my Father in heaven has not planted. They will be pulled up by the roots.
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Leave them. The Pharisees are blind guides. If a blind person leads another who is blind, both of them will fall into a pit."
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Peter said, "Explain this to us."
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"Don't you understand yet?" Jesus asked them.
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"Don't you see? Everything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach. Then it goes out of the body.
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But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. Those are the things that make you 'unclean.'
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Evil thoughts come out of the heart. So do murder, adultery, and other sexual sins. And so do stealing, false witness, and telling lies about others.
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Those are the things that make you 'unclean.' But eating without washing your hands does not make you 'unclean.' "