NAS - Matthew 15:1-20

15 Tradition and Commandment

¹Then some Pharisees and scribes *came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ²"Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread." ³And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?⁴"For God said, `HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, `HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'⁵"But you say, `Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,"⁶he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.⁷"You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:⁸ `THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.⁹ `BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'"

¹⁰After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, "Hear and understand.¹¹"It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."

¹²Then the disciples *came and *said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" ¹³But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted.¹⁴"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."

The Heart of Man

¹⁵Peter said to Him, "Explain the parable to us." ¹⁶Jesus said, "Are you still lacking in understanding also?¹⁷"Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?¹⁸"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.¹⁹"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.²⁰"These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."