Matthew 15:11

Jesus teaches that defilement comes not from what enters the mouth but from what comes out of it. It matters because it locates true impurity in the heart and its words, not in foods or rituals.

Cross-references · 23

• Mark 7:15There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
• Matt 15:18–20But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
• Jas 3:5–8Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
• 1 Tim 4:4–5For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
• Matt 12:34–37O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
• Rom 14:17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
• Acts 10:14–15But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
• Ps 12:2They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
• Luke 11:38–41And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
• Isa 59:13–15In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
• Rom 3:13–14Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
• Ps 52:2–4Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
• Ps 10:7His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
• Ps 58:3–4The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
• Acts 11:8–9But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
• Jer 9:3–6And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
• Rom 14:20For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
• Heb 13:9Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
• Rom 14:14I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
• 2 Pet 2:18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
• Titus 1:15Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
• Isa 37:23Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
• Isa 59:3–5For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.