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 outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
• Matt 15:18–20But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man.
• Jas 3:5–8So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!
• 1 Tim 4:4–5For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving.
• Matt 12:34–37You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
• Rom 14:17for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 10:14–15But Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
• Ps 12:2Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
• Luke 11:38–41When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.
• Isa 59:13–15transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
• Rom 3:13–14“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”;
• Ps 52:2–4Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
• Ps 10:7His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
• Ps 58:3–4The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
• Acts 11:8–9But I said, ‘Not so, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered into my mouth.’
• Jer 9:3–6“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.
• Rom 14:20Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.
• Heb 13:9Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
• Rom 14:14I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
• 2 Pet 2:18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
• Titus 1:15To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
• Isa 37:23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? 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 mutters wickedness.

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.