Matthew 15:2-20

2“Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”

3He answered them, “And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?

4For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’

5But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,”

6he does not need to honor his father.’ You have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition.

7Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said,

8‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me,

9and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

10Then he called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.

11What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.”

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

13And he replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.

14Leave them! They are blind guides. If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”

16Jesus said, “Even after all this, are you still so foolish?

17Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and then passes out into the sewer?

18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person.

19For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

20These are the things that defile a person; it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person.”