Scripture Daily

Context No. 3558 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 15:15-20: in context

15Peter answered him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16So Jesus said, “Do you also still not understand? 17Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the belly and then out of the body? 18But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man. 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies. 20These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands doesn’t defile the man.”

Jesus corrects a deep misunderstanding about what makes a person unclean. It is not what goes into the mouth, food, unwashed hands, external things, that defiles, but what comes out of the heart. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, slander.

The source of defilement is not external but internal; the real problem is the heart. This overturns a religion obsessed with outward observance while the heart itself goes untended. Jesus locates the trouble exactly where it truly lies, not in ceremonies and externals, but in the human heart, from which every evil flows. And the implication is unmistakable: we cannot clean ourselves up by managing outward behaviors while leaving the heart unchanged; what we need is a new heart altogether. Real transformation is not skin-deep. It must reach the wellspring within, from which all our words and actions come, and only God can make that inmost source clean.

Do I attend to the true source of what defiles me, the heart, rather than settling for outward observance, and do I seek from God the clean heart that only he can give?

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