To 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.
Parallel translations
- WEB To 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.
- KJV Unto 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.
- BSB To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
- NKJV To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
- NLT Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, for their minds and consciences are corrupted. It matters because purity is a matter of the heart, not external rules.
Overview
Paul counters the false teachers' obsession with ceremonial regulations: true defilement comes from within, from an unbelieving heart, not from things themselves. This echoes Jesus' teaching that it is what comes out of a person that defiles. The gospel cleanses the inner person, making the believer pure where rule-keeping never could.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- 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.
- 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.
- 1 Cor 10:23“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are profitable. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things build up.
- 1 Tim 4:3–4forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
- Matt 15:18But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man.
- Rom 14:23But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.
- 1 Cor 10:31Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
- Acts 10:15A voice came to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean.”
- 1 Cor 6:12–13“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything.
- 1 Cor 8:7However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
- Heb 10:22let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
- Luke 11:39–41The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.
- 1 Cor 11:27–29Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
- Prov 21:4A high look, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.
- 1 Cor 10:25Whatever is sold in the butcher shop, eat, asking no question for the sake of conscience,
- 1 Tim 6:5constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
- Hag 2:13Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by reason of a dead body touch any of these, will it be unclean?” The priests answered, “It will be unclean.”
- Heb 9:14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
- Zech 7:5–6“Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
We await 'the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us' and purify a people of his own.
How Titus 1:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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