Some
Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see
Jesus. They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old
tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they
eat.”
Jesus replied, “And why do
you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? For
instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks
disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is
all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I
have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way,
you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word
of God for the sake of your own tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was
right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me.
Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”
Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
Then the disciples came to him and asked,
“Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”
Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted
by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, so ignore them. They are blind
guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will
both fall into a ditch.”
Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us
the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”
“Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus
asked. “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the
sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles
you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual
immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating
with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
~ Bible Text Reference: Matthew
15:1-20 [Holy Bible -NLT] taken from https://www.biblegateway.com