“It is not what goes into your mouth that defiles a man; but what comes out of it.” (v. 18)
Here in chapter 15 Jesus teaches on matters of the heart. While doing so He completely disregards some oral Jewish traditions, infuriating the Scribes and Pharisees who stand more on tradition than scripture. Here in our text He is teaching it is more important to wash your heart than your hands. Why? “Because the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The solution to defilement then is to cleans the heart not the hands. As King David wrote in the Psalms we should, "hide God’s word in our hearts, that we might not sin against Him” (Psalm 119:11). How is defilement avoided? By God’s Word, purifying our hearts, certainly not by ceremonially washing our hands.
May we be more concerned with what goes into our hearts and eventurally comes out of our mouths.
The Truth: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2)
