14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” – Mark 7:14-23 ESV
A small contingent of scribes and Pharisees had confronted Jesus with an accusation presented in the form of a question. They were demanding that Jesus explain the “shocking” behavior of His disciples.
“Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” – Mark 7:5 ESV
What shocked these pious religious leaders was seeing Jesus’ disciples eat without first properly cleansing their hands. The word “defiled” translates the Greek word aniptos, meaning “unwashed.” Mark gives a clue as to what motivated the religious leaders.
For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders… – Mark 7:3 ESV
According to these men, the disciples had violated established protocol. The “tradition of the elders,” or oral law, required all Jews to ceremonially cleanse their hands before eating. Jews were required to wash their hands and say a blessing before any meal that included bread. The ritual, known as netilat yadayim, involved using a cup to pour water onto the hands and letting it flow down to the elbows. The ritual had nothing to do with personal hygiene; it was done for ritual purposes.
According to the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, this ceremony had little practical value.
“When, therefore, some of the Pharisees remarked that our Lord’s disciples ate with ‘unwashen hands,’ it is not to be understood literally that they did not at all wash their hands, but that they did not wash them ceremonially according to their own practice. And this was expected of them only as the disciples of a religious teacher; for these refinements were not practised by the class of people from which the disciples were chiefly drawn.” – Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Jesus was well aware of his accusers' intentions; these men tried to label Him and His disciples as lawbreakers. But Jesus took the opportunity to teach His followers a valuable lesson on hygiene and holiness.
While the Pharisees focused on the outward practice of hand-washing, Jesus took the conversation deeper. In other words, He went to the “heart” of the matter. Gathering the people around Him, Jesus said, “All of you listen…and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart” (Mark 7:14-15 NLT). And that was all He said.
As usual, Jesus’ reply was short and succinct, but not exactly clear. Mark indicates that even the 12 disciples struggled to understand the meaning behind Jesus’ abbreviated lesson. When they were alone with Jesus, they asked Him to explain what they understood to be another of His parables. But this was less a parable than it was a moral object lesson. Jesus’ comment was prompted by the scribes' and Pharisees' emphasis on ritualistic cleansing. These men cared about appearances and used their lengthy list of man-made rules to promote and prove their own righteousness. Their behavior was a badge of honor. Rule-keeping became their primary measure of righteousness. But Jesus cared more about the inside than the outside. On another occasion, He leveled a stinging accusation against the Pharisees, exposing the farcical nature of their religious rule-keeping.
“You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!” – Matthew 23:25 NLT
These attacks on the well-respected religious leaders always left the disciples scratching their heads. Weren’t the scribes and Pharisees meant to be revered for their obvious displays of righteousness? How could Jesus get away with calling them hypocrites and blind guides? Why did He feel the constant need to anger them?
But Jesus was trying to teach His disciples that mankind's problem was not physical but spiritual. It all had to do with the condition of the heart. No amount of outward cleansing or ritual purification could produce a holy heart. So, He reiterated His original statement one more time, but with further clarification.
“Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” – Mark 7:18 NLT
Food was little more than fuel, taken into the body for energy, then discarded as waste. Washing hands, pots, pans, and the food itself, while beneficial for personal hygiene, had no value for a person’s spiritual condition. Food can give energy to the human heart, but it can do nothing to influence the moral state of the human soul, either positively or negatively. Drinking from a ritually cleansed cup may make one feel purer, but it is nothing more than a facade, an exercise in self-deception.
Mark adds another important parenthetical statement to further clarification.
By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes. – Mark 7:19 NLT
This expanded explanation most likely escaped the disciples. But it became clearer to them when Jesus ascended into heaven after His resurrection. In the days after Jesus departed and the Holy Spirit descended, the disciples obeyed His commission and took the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Even Gentiles accepted the free gift of God’s grace made possible through faith in Jesus Christ. As a result, they received the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God. The addition of Gentile converts to the early church produced an important debate among the disciples about the role of the Mosaic law in the lives of these former pagans.
There were those, like Peter, who believed that any Gentiles who came to faith should be required to keep the Jewish religious laws, just as they did. But Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, pushed back against this unnecessary requirement. In doing so, he did not denigrate or dismiss God’s law, but simply denied that salvation came by faith alone in Christ alone, with no additional requirements. Paul argued vehemently that the law had no place in these Gentile converts' lives. The Jewish dietary laws no longer applied, and even the Jewish rite of circumcision was to be set aside.
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. – Romans 2:28-29 NLT
It was all about the heart, and that was the very point Jesus was trying to make with His disciples. Knowing their hardened hearts (Mark 6:52 made it difficult for them to grasp the meaning behind His teaching, Jesus spoke plainly and simply.
“It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” – Mark 7:20-23 NLT
This less-than-flattering list resembles one in Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. – Galatians 5:19-21 NLT
These ungodly, unholy, and unrighteous actions do not result from unwashed hands but from an unregenerate heart. Man’s heart is wicked and controlled by his sinful nature. It is not the result of poor living conditions, improper hygiene, insufficient education, or failing to keep a list of religious rules.
James reminds us, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14-16 NLT). The prophet Jeremiah adds, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NLT).
So Jesus was trying to communicate a deep, abiding truth about the nature of man’s sinful state. No amount of ritual cleansing would solve the problem. The Pharisees cleansed the outside of “the cup,” but missed the real problem. Like all men, they suffered from a serious heart condition that was untreatable by human means. Even their strict adherence to the laws of Moses and their faithful keeping of the traditions of the fathers could do nothing to render their hearts holy and acceptable to God.
As Paul told the Galatian believers, “It is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life’” (Galatians 3:11 NLT).
This was news to the disciples, and it contradicted everything they had been taught as young boys in the local synagogue. Jesus was letting them know that the problem of sin was far greater and more pervasive than they realized. Man’s defilement and condemnation before God was an internal problem, not an external one, and there was only one solution. And He was standing right in front of them.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.