Matthew 15:19 - Printer Friendly

ESV: For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

NIV: For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

NASB: For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies, and slanderous statements.

CSB: For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.

NLT: For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.

KJV: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

NKJV: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Jesus has rejected the Pharisee's unscriptural rule that a person must perform ritual handwashing before eating. He has not required His disciples to practice this, and He seems not to do it, either. In explaining Himself, Christ rejected the faulty assumption behind the ritual: that the sin came from the food, or the substance, itself (Matthew 15:10–11).

In contrast, Jesus said it is not what goes into a person through his or her mouth that makes that person spiritually unclean. It's what comes out of their mouths—meaning their words—which reveals the uncleanness in their hearts. Food that is swallowed can never touch the soul or spirit of a person to truly defile him or her. In fact, food cannot defile us because we are already defiled, as our words reveal. This is in keeping with Jesus' earlier teachings about the laws given by God (Matthew 5:17–19). Those rules are meaningful because they point to our own intentions, not shallow legalism (Matthew 5:21–22, 27–28).

Jesus provides a list of examples of defilement that reside in human hearts. It is not meant to be exhaustive; there are far more sins than just these. The list includes evil thoughts, murder, and adultery. Jesus refers to sexual immorality of any kind using the Greek term porneia. He also refers to theft, lying about other people's actions, and slander. This is what lives in human hearts and is revealed by the words we speak.

Matthew has quoted Jesus earlier in this book as saying that people are evil (Matthew 7:11). Here He is confirming that this is reality. We are defiled on the inside already. Sin is not a chemical reaction to the food we eat. It's a spiritual condition of the choices we make, driven by the evil in our hearts. Paul will echo Jesus in declaring this universal condition when he later writes that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:23).

Jesus is not saying the dietary restrictions in the Law of Moses don't matter. Jesus kept the Law perfectly. Those restrictions were given to Israel to set them apart from the other nations. The point is that pork or other foods are not "evil substances." Avoiding these was meant to be a way for Israel to live in submission to God. Not eating them, though, did not keep human hearts from being sinful. That was the unsolvable human condition that Jesus had come to solve.

Matthew 15:10–20 describes Jesus' expanded answer to a challenge from the Pharisees. Their concern is not about washing hands for health, but to follow religious rituals. He says these Pharisees will be uprooted and that they are blind guides. When asked, Jesus tells the disciples it's not what goes into a person's mouth that defiles him; it's the words that come out that reveal the sin in his heart. The defilement is already there, including all kinds of sin. He tells them flatly that eating with unwashed hands does not spiritually defile anyone.

Pharisees and scribes come from Jerusalem to challenge Jesus. They are offended that His disciples break the religious leaders' tradition about ritual handwashing before meals. Jesus turns that attack upside down, pointing out that His critics honor tradition above God's actual commands! He insists that nobody is defiled by what goes in the mouth—by the literal matter itself—but by the overflow of the spirit, such as the words that come out of the mouth. He and the disciples travel out of the country. Jesus casts a demon out of the daughter of a persistent Canaanite woman. They travel to the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus feeds thousands of people from a few loaves and fishes. These last two events set up the eventual spread of the gospel beyond the people of Israel.

Matthew 15 begins with a confrontation between some Pharisees and Jesus. They ask why His disciples break the traditional practice of ritual handwashing. Pointedly, Jesus asks why they allow the obvious intent of God's commandments to be broken through their traditions. Jesus and the disciples travel out of Israel, encountering a Canaanite woman. He praises her faith and casts a demon from her daughter. They travel to the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus heals more people and feeds thousands more from another few loaves and fishes. This sets up another confrontation with religious leaders, warnings about their teachings, and predictions of Jesus' death in the next chapter.

The Gospel of Matthew clearly shows the influence of its writer's background, and his effort to reach a specific audience. Matthew was one of Jesus' twelve disciples, a Jewish man, and a former tax collector. This profession would have required literacy, and Matthew may have transcribed some of Jesus' words as they were spoken. This book is filled with references to the Old Testament, demonstrating to Israel that Jesus is the Promised One. Matthew also includes many references to coins, likely due to his former profession. Matthew records extensive accounts of Jesus' teaching, more than the other three Gospels.