Mark 7:9-23

9He said to them, ‘You refuse to obey God's rules, because then you can keep your own ideas!

10For example, Moses wrote, “You must love your father and your mother. You must obey them.” He also said, “You must kill anyone who curses his father or his mother.”

11But you teach that a person may say to his father or to his mother, “I would have given gifts to help you. But I cannot do that, because I have given them to God instead.”

12If he says that, you let him do nothing to help his father or his mother.

13This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed the ideas that you received from your leaders many years ago. And you do many other things like that.’

14Jesus asked the crowd of people to come to him again. He said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, so that you can understand these things.

15People do not become unclean because of things that go into their bodies from outside. They become unclean because of the things that come out from their minds.

16[You have heard my words. So do what I say.’]

17Jesus left the crowd of people and he went into a house. Then his disciples asked him to explain what he had taught.

18Jesus said, ‘I am surprised that you too do not understand what I am saying. You should understand that food will not make people unclean. Food goes into people's bodies from outside.

19But food does not go into people's minds. It goes into their stomachs and then it passes out of their bodies.’ When Jesus said this, he was teaching that all foods are clean.

20Jesus then said, ‘People become unclean because of what comes out from them, not because of what goes in.

21Evil thoughts come out from people's minds. As a result they do wrong things. They have sex in wrong ways. They rob people. They murder people.

22They have sex with another man's wife. They are greedy. They are cruel to other people. They deceive people. They live like wild animals. They are jealous of other people. They say bad things about other people. They are proud and foolish.

23All these wrong things begin inside people's minds and then they come out. That is what makes them unclean.’