Matthew 15:11–20

¹¹It is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes him ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes him unclean.”

¹²Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that the Pharisees had their feelings hurt by what you said?”

¹³“Every plant which my Father in heaven did not plant will be pulled up,” answered Jesus. ^14*“Don’t worry about them! They are blind leaders of the blind; and when one blind man leads another, both fall into a ditch.”

¹⁵Peter spoke up, “Explain this saying to us.”

¹⁶Jesus said to them, “You are still no more intelligent than the others. ¹⁷Don’t you understand? Anything that goes into a person’s mouth goes into his stomach and then on out of his body. ^18*But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make a person ritually unclean. ¹⁹For from his heart come the evil ideas which lead him to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others. ²⁰These are the things that make a person unclean. But to eat without washing your hands as they say you should—this doesn’t make a person unclean.”