Matthew 15:16-20

What Defiles a Person

¹⁶ And he said, _y "Are you also still without understanding? ¹⁷ Do you not see that _z whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? ₁ ¹⁸ But _a what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. ¹⁹ For out of the heart come _b evil thoughts, _c murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, _d slander. ²⁰ _e These are what defile a person. But _f to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone."

1. Cross References
   Matthew 16:9
   Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
   
2. Cross References
   1 Corinthians 6:13
   Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food" - and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
   
3. Cross References
   Matthew 12:34
   You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
   James 3:6
   And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
   
4. Cross References
   James 2:4
   Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
   
5. Cross References
   Matthew 5:22
   But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.
   Matthew 5:28
   But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
   Exodus 20:13 - 16
   You shall not murder.
   
6. Cross References
   Ephesians 4:31
   Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
   Colossians 3:8
   But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
   1 Timothy 6:4
   He is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions.
   
7. Cross References
   1 Corinthians 6:9 - 10
   Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality.
   
8. Cross References
   Mark 7:2
   They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
   Mark 7:5
   And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?