Matthew 15:1–20

Obey God’s Law

15Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem. They asked him, ²“Why don’t your followers obey the unwritten laws which have been handed down to us? They don’t wash their hands before they eat.”

³Jesus answered, “And why do you refuse to obey God’s command so that you can follow your own teachings? ⁴God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ ⁿ and ‘Anyone who says cruel things to his father or mother must be put to death.’ ^{n 5}But you say a person can tell his father or mother, ‘I have something I could use to help you, but I have given it to God already.’ ⁶You teach that person not to honor his father or his mother. You rejected what God said for the sake of your own rules. ⁷You are hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he said about you:

⁸‘These people show honor to me with words,

but their hearts are far from me.

⁹Their worship of me is worthless.

The things they teach are nothing but human rules.’ ”

¹⁰After Jesus called the crowd to him, he said, “Listen and understand what I am saying. ¹¹It is not what people put into their mouths that makes them unclean. It is what comes out of their mouths that makes them unclean.”

¹²Then his followers came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees are angry because of what you said?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Every plant that my Father in heaven has not planted himself will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴Stay away from the Pharisees; they are blind leaders. ⁿ And if a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a ditch.”

¹⁵Peter said, “Explain the example to us.”

¹⁶Jesus said, “Do you still not understand? ¹⁷Surely you know that all the food that enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then goes out of the body. ¹⁸But what people say with their mouths comes from the way they think; these are the things that make people unclean. ¹⁹Out of the mind come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual sins, stealing, lying, and speaking evil of others. ²⁰These things make people unclean; eating with unwashed hands does not make them unclean.”