Matthew 15:1-20 NAS
Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said,
"Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For
they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." And He
answered and said to them,
"Why do you yourselves
transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
For God said HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER, and He who SPEAKS EVIL OF
FATHER AND MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH. But you say "Whoever
says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you
has been given to God," he is not to honor his father or his
mother." And by this you invalidated the word of God for the
sake of your tradition. You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy
of you:
THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,
BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME,
TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN."
After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them,
"Hear and
understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the
man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."
Then the disciples came and
said to Him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they
heard this statement?" But He answered and said, "Every
plan which My heavenly Father did not plan shall be uprooted. Let
them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man
guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Peter said to Him,
"Explain the parable to us." Jesus said, "Are
you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that
everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is
eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from
the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with
unwashed hands does not defile the man."
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