What Really Makes People Unclean
September 9, 2019
Commentary
Jesus called the crowd together and asked them to listen to what He had to say and try to understand the important information He had to share with them (v. 10). He told them that it was not the type of food they put in their mouth that made them unclean and unfit to worship God (v. 11). Instead it was the words that come out of their mouth that make them unclean and defiles them as a person.
Then His disciples asked Him if he realized that he had insulted the Pharisees by what He had said (v. 12)? He answered by saying, “Every plant that my Father in Heaven has not planted will be pulled up by the roots (v. 13). Stay away from those Pharisees! They are like blind people trying to lead other blind people, and all of them will fall into a ditch” (v. 14).
Then Peter asked Jesus what He meant by this parable (v. 15). Jesus responded by saying, “Don’t any of you know what I am talking about by now (v. 16)? Don’t you know that the food you put into your stomach goes out of the body into the sewer (v. 17)? But the words that come out of your mouth come from your heart and they are what make you unfit to worship God (v. 18). These are things like murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, telling lies, stealing, slander, blasphemy etc. (v. 19). These are what make you unclean (v. 20). Eating without washing your hands will not make you unfit to worship God."
Application
I am so thankful that my sins have been blotted out by the shed blood of Christ on the cross of Calvary some 2000 years ago.
Matthew 15:10– 20 (NET)
10 Then he called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were offended?” 13 And he replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. 14 Leave them! They are blind guides. If someone who is blind leads another who is blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 Jesus said, “Even after all this, are you still so foolish? 17 Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and then passes out into the sewer? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are the things that defile a person; it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person.”
Illustration: Container is Contaminated
Your family and one of your best friends families has decided to go camping, but you forgot to bring a container for water, on your way to the campsite your friend sees a container in the ditch he stops and picks it up, it has a skull and crossbones on the outside of the container, it says poison on it, and has a little bit of poison left at the bottom of the container, so he turns it upside down and dumps the poisonous liquid out, then when you get to the campsite he goes over to an area that has pure filtered water and he fills the container up with water, would you and your family be willing to drink out of that container? Of course you wouldn’t! because if the container is contaminated so is the water. God can never accept the righteousness that comes out of the human heart, no matter how good it looks outwardly. God sees that the container it came out of is defiled. The only thing that can offset the life of sin is the death of Christ (Rom 5:8). (Lou Nicholes – Missionary/Author)