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."

Cross References

• 1. Matthew 13:51
• 2. See Acts 10:14, 15
• 3. [Matthew 13:57; Luke 7:23]
• 4. [Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 61:3; John 15:1, 2; 1 Corinthians 3:9]
• 5. Jude 12
• 6. Matthew 23:16, 24; [Isaiah 56:10; Malachi 2:8]
• 7. Luke 6:39
• 8. [Matthew 13:36]
• 9. Matthew 16:9
• 10. [1 Corinthians 6:13]
• 11. Matthew 12:34; James 3:6
• 12. James 2:4
• 13. Matthew 5:22, 28; See Exodus 20:13-16
• 14. Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; 1 Timothy 6:4
• 15. 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10
• 16. Mark 7:2, 5

Footnotes

• [a]. Some manuscripts add of the blind
• [b]. Greek is expelled into the latrine