Matthew 15:8–19

⁸“ ‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

⁹They worship me in vain;

their teachings are merely human rules.^t’^cu”

¹⁰Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. ¹¹What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them,^v but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”^w

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

¹³He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted^x will be pulled up by the roots. ¹⁴Leave them; they are blind guides.^dy If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”^z

¹⁵Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”^a

¹⁶“Are you still so dull?”^b Jesus asked them. ¹⁷“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? ¹⁸But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart,^c and these defile them. ¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.^d