Matthew 15:11–20

¹¹What goes into your mouth does not make you ‘unclean.’ It’s what comes out of your mouth that makes you ‘unclean.’ ”

¹²Then the disciples came to him. They asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were angry when they heard this?”

¹³Jesus replied, “There are plants that my Father in heaven has not planted. They will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴Leave them. The Pharisees are blind guides. If a blind person leads another who is blind, both of them will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵Peter said, “Explain this to us.”

¹⁶“Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked them. ¹⁷“Don’t you see? Everything that enters the mouth goes into the stomach. Then it goes out of the body. ¹⁸But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. Those are the things that make you ‘unclean.’ ¹⁹Evil 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. ²⁰Those are the things that make you ‘unclean.’ But eating without washing your hands does not make you ‘unclean.’ ”